For the 126th year, BCCI’s door will remain wide open for all of you

Dear members and partners,

The past 2020 brought unprecedented changes in the labour market and the daily activities of businesses. It was marked by the growing role of digital services and the unpredictability of free and normal movement of people and goods. These and many other obstacles were posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which from a health crisis turned into an economic one. The shutting downs of the economy led to the closure of companies, some of which still remain closed today, while others have completely ceased operations.

Even though the state has taken economic measures to maintain employment and support companies, some of them have not been widely used by the business and citizens or have been too slow to reach them.

Unfortunately, the greatest negative impact of the crisis has been borne by micro and small enterprises. Thousands of companies and citizens have been helped through various measures, but tens of thousands more have not managed to benefit from them for various reasons.

BCCI has consistently encouraged companies to monitor the state of the sector in which they operate, to focus on digitalization and to limit activities that will unbearably increase their indebtedness.

The results of the EUROCHAMBRES Economic Survey, carried out in cooperation with the BCCI, reflected the scale of the ongoing economic crisis, which has not only affected demand but has also drastically hampered productivity. Unfortunately, in 2021 the economy is obviously not expected to reach its pre-pandemic levels.

Thanks to its macroeconomic indicators in the first half of 2020, Bulgaria has retained its assessments given by the international rating agencies. Despite this, the country has registered slightly worsened positions in some international rankings such as the UN’s “Human Development Index”, the KOF Swiss Economic Institute’s “Index of Globalization”, the Vision of Humanity’s “Global Peace Index”, and the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report. In view of the current conditions, however, this is not a bad achievement as a whole. On the other hand, in other rankings, such as the “World Press Freedom Index” of Reporters Without Borders  (111^th place out of 180 countries), the “Electricity supply” sub-index of the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report (151^th place out of 190 countries), as well as the “Starting a Business” sub-index (113^th place out of 190 countries), Bulgaria’s position remains unacceptably low for a EU member-state, but for many years the responsible institutions seem to remain unfazed by it.

Still, there are prerequisites for our country to get out of the crisis faster and with less damage than other countries with comparable economies. The positive steps we have taken in the past year are also worth mentioning, namely the entry into the ERM II exchange rate mechanism, which gives our country a clearer perspective for accession into the Euro area. In 2020, Bulgaria has improved its results in the Legatum Institute’s “Prosperity Index”, the “Index of Economic Freedom” of the Heritage Foundation, the “Economic Freedom of the World” index of the Fraser Institute, and the “International Property Index” of the Property Rights Alliance.

BCCI will continue to monitor Bulgaria’s place in the international rankings and the assessments of the world agencies and research centers. Their remarks to our country and the negative positions related to them should be a starting point for the government and the policy-makers for improving the economic and business environment in Bulgaria, and we will persistently continue to remind it to the ruling party and the opposition.

We wish the business community in Bulgaria to be more sensitive to the negative phenomena that affect everyone’s everyday life. We wish our regional structures and branch organizations to be even more active in initiating, discussing and formulating proposals for improving the economic climate in the country, because we who work in Bulgaria will be the first to feel the difference. It will also be felt by the majority of foreign investors who withstand the difficulties and have the ambition not only to keep working, but also to expand their activities, as all the surveys carried out by us and our partner organizations show.

We express our deep respect and admiration to the managers and the teams of all companies that have made efforts to remain on the market. We will also support those who will be forced to diversify or change their business to new goods and services that are more sought after by the customers. All of us will have to digitalize in order to be more successful.

For the 126^th year, BCCI’s door will remain wide open for all of you and will remind you of the new opportunities waiting for you to take advantage of them.

I wish you a fruitful new year 2021!

Tsvetan Simeonov

BCCI President