BCCI wants to improve the promotion of Bulgarian SMEs in international business exhibitions

It is not right for a governmental body to organize the participation of Bulgarian companies in fairs, exhibitions and business delegations with taxpayers’ money. This is a typical example of unfair competition in a market economy to companies and NGOs which provide this service as part of their subject of activity, the President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov stressed. This job should be left to the people who are specialized in organizing business meetings and delegations, and the governmental bodies should execute their actual supervisory functions – to monitor how the money of taxpayers is spent. The President of BCCI presented a proposal on behalf of the business to improve the structure of information and for correct management of the Export Portal of the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The information and procedures in it must be frequently updated to ensure more transparency.

SMEs applying for funding for participation in international fairs, exhibitions and business delegations need to be informed a year in advance, if possible even earlier, so that they can plan their participation with goods and products demonstrating Bulgarian economy. According to BCCI, the role of sectorial organizations in this process and the need make it more transparent, will allow the results from the international appearances of SMEs to be obtained in shorter terms. On the basis of the Chamber’s 50-year-experience, we expect the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism also to help print and circulate specialized economic information, which will help improve competitiveness of Bulgarian companies, encourage their development and promote entrepreneurship. 

The Executive Director of Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Mariana Velkova informed that a proposal was made to prolong by 10 months the Programme for organizing participation in international specialized exhibitions. As part of this project, the participation of SMEs in 46 fairs and exhibitions in the period of the programme until 2013 is promoted. It was agreed that the Agency and the non-governmental sector will actively exchange information in order to achieve better results from the participation of SMEs in international fairs, exhibitions and business delegations.