The IOR Association held a number of informational meetings with the local authorities in the border area in implementation of the "Business Council" project
In implementation of the project "Business Council - BC 6275" financed by the program INTERREG V/A GREECE-BULGARIA 2014-2020, Subsidy contract №B6.3a.18/13.04.2021, association "Institute for Community Development", beneficiary of the project held 11 meetings with local authorities where the issues identified during the regular meetings of the business councils were presented.
The meetings were held in the buildings of the municipal/regional administrations of:
1. Simitli municipality
2. Municipality of Smolyan
3. Smolyan region
4. Municipality of Bansko
5. Municipality of Blagoevgrad
6. Municipality Lubimets
7. Municipality of Banite
8. Kardzhali region
9. Municipality of Dimitrovgra
10. Municipality of Haskovo
11. Jebel Municipality
The meetings were attended by representatives of local authorities, before whom the INTERREG V/A GREECE-BULGARIA 2014-2020 cross-border program was briefly presented, as well as its main objectives, namely: expanding entrepreneurial activity in the border area, improving the capacity of SMEs to penetrate on foreign markets, the promotion of cultural and natural heritage, the expansion of social entrepreneurship, etc.
After the presentation of the program and its goals, the project management team presented the results that the partner organizations achieved on the territory of our country, namely:
- Councils were constituted in all 9 priority sectors in all project areas – Blagoevgrad, Kardzhali, Haskovo and Smolyan;
- 84 regular meetings of the constituted councils were held;
- As a result of the discussions, a number of problems were brought up, which were formed into a database valid for all sectors and areas;
- An online platform was created to support the work of the constituted councils;
- A database was built with SMEs from Bulgaria and Greece.
The team told the attendees about the discussions held, from which the business councils identified the following issues that were noticed in all sectors and in all areas, namely:
- The lack of qualified labor in all priority sectors, resulting from depopulation in the border areas;
- The low purchasing power of Bulgarians and the severe political crisis, which stops the work of business in a number of directions;
- High electricity prices;
- The lack of policies to support SMEs;
The recommendations that were made to address the identified issues were as follows:
- The organization of round tables between business and local authorities, the education sector, non-governmental organizations, which will lead to the creation of a continuous constructive dialogue between all interested parties;
- Conducting informational / explanatory campaigns for young entrepreneurs;
- The promotion of policies to stimulate the growth of SMEs;
- Stimulation of young professionals when starting work in small settlements - tax breaks, provision of municipal housing and various social benefits.
During the meetings, the representatives of the local authorities expressed their readiness to participate in a constructive dialogue with the representatives of the businesses in their settlements and together to look for ways to deal with the problems presented.
All those present were familiar with the functionalities of the platform https://www.bcaction.eu/ , created under the project to support the work of the established business councils.
