News

An informational meeting with representatives of regional administration and business was held on 09.12.2021 in the town of Harmanli. The meeting was organized in the framework of the project "Business Council- BC 6275" funded by the INTERREG V/A GREECE-BULGARIA 2014-2020, Subsidy contract № B6.3a.18/13.04.2021.

The meeting was held with representatives of "Harmanli Business Club", representatives of wineries from the region and representatives of hoteliers and restaurateurs.

The moderator welcomed the participants and made a thorough presentation of the INTERREG programme. The presentation of the programme was followed by a description of the beneficiary with its good practices and factual orientation in public affairs. The project partners, their profile and public affairs focus were explained. In the course of the presentation, the concept of business councils, their mandate, their vision and what they will be doing was presented. The focus of the presentation was the benefits that a business council can bring to the business community.

Following this, time was taken to introduce the potential participants in a business council, specifically representatives from various industry bodies, municipal/regional administration and business representatives. It was explained that there is no charge for participation and the administrative functioning will be provided by the beneficiary.

There was a brief discussion on the credentials of the business councils as this sparked people's interest as to how far their authority could go and how far their public role could be strengthened.

A conversation was raised about when exactly the business councils would start working because this is a chance to improve the micro environment.

Shortly after the end of the presentation, the President of the Business for Harmanli Association addressed the meeting. She expressed her approval of the project idea and said that such sector business councils are needed and would be useful for businesses. She shared the experience of the association, which is entirely oriented towards socially useful activities and expressed her willingness to participate in business councils.

Next, the president of the wine producers' association shared a problem that had arisen before them, related to the fact that restaurants in the region rarely buy local wines and the reason for that is the aggressive policy of distribution companies that launch wines from other regions. He expressed the hope that through the activities of the business council and the inclusion of border area restaurateurs, wine producers will have a greater opportunity to present their products so that distributors can be avoided in the process.

The present Harmanli restaurateurs and hoteliers agreed with her and even made real proposals to solve the problem.

Following the coffee break, the main discussion was about the participants of the councils, their profiles and the way to be as useful as possible to solve their problem.

Contact information with RISK NGO was provided shortly before the end of the event, including email, phone, address, website,<br>

Due to the great interest, a request was made at the end, and the beneficiary made a commitment, to contact the participants present at today's meeting once the business councils are actually constituted.<br>

After the closing of the event, a representative of the beneficiary and the moderator had a few informal personal conversations with business representatives who wished to establish personal contact regarding the formation of the councils and their inclusion in them.

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