Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA)

The members of the National Council of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev discussed the acceleration of operational programs, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and measures to improve the business climate.
"Our industry has been in crisis for the third year now. For January 2025, industrial production has returned to the level of 90% of 2021. We have a crisis that is fundamentally a consequence of the crisis in Europe, caused by expensive energy, exchanged sanctions, lack of human resources and administrative burdens. These are the conditions in which Bulgarian enterprises operate, survive and try to develop. That is why we believe that European funding is among the important factors for getting out of the crisis and increasing investments," said the Chairman of the Management Board of BICA Vasil Velev.
According to Tomislav Donchev, business-state relations do not end with EU funding. "The state is indebted to enterprises in terms of modernization policies and infrastructure construction. Our country must improve revenue collection in order to be able to increase investments in them," said the Minister of Innovation and Growth.
According to him, the entire cabinet is currently making maximum efforts to awaken European funding. He shared that after an inspection, it was established that the payment levels under the operational programs for four years are only 8.5%, those under the NPV are 12 percent, and our country has already lost 320 million leva under the Plan. "The deadline for the implementation of the NPV is August 2026, and a large part of the approved projects do not yet have public procurement announced. However, I am optimistic that with good organization we will be able to develop schemes that will reach the business as quickly as possible," he added. He added that the main focus will be digitalization, innovation and energy efficiency.
The main focus was placed on vocational education and improving the qualifications of the workforce. For BICA, education is one of the most important priorities and the proper structuring of the admission plan in educational institutions is one half of the work that needs to be done to improve it. Among other main tasks is provoking interest among children and their parents in vocational education, mathematics, natural and technical sciences. Tomislav Donchev expressed categorical support for supporting and accelerating reforms in education. He added that the state and business must also work together to increase the visibility of the Bulgarian industry, its achievements and the opportunities it offers for career development.
During the meeting, other topics were addressed such as improving the work of the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, developing a social plan for the climate, accelerating labor migration, calculating the minimum wage, the need for fair competition, etc.