Bulgaria’s innovative business has supported the fragile growth of the Bulgarian economy in recent years. Despite all the political experiments in the country and the global crises, we continue to work conscientiously and pay three times higher taxes and social security contributions than the national average. We continue to grow at a faster pace than the growth of the economy, to add value and to invest our personal time and the capacity of our companies to modernize education and develop human talent.
Against this background, the state continues to treat us as an implicit donor, plugging all the holes in the budget. Another increase in the maximum social security threshold – regardless of the dynamics in the economy and society – is a new punitive measure against transparent business and an attack on the educated, active people working in our companies and making up Bulgaria’s middle class, who feel increasingly alienated from their political representatives.
The government demonstratively does not respect our demands, which have been an integral part of our public discourse in recent years. The following key topics, which are in the interest of the entire Bulgarian society, remain unchanged:
1. Increasing the level of social services supported by social security funds – plugging the leaks in the healthcare and social sector systems and stopping corrupt practices;
2. Lightening the gray sector. We constantly hear arguments for the “fairness” of taxes and social security, but the state continues to tolerate entire gray sectors through non-payment of taxes;
3. Demographic policy promoting the retention and development of young people;
4. Reforms in education to make it adequate to the new technological realities in the economy;
5. Reforms in the justice system and the rule of law;
6. Optimization of administration and digitalization of the public sector;
7. A clear strategy for attracting foreign investment, including in the high-tech sector.
The state’s refusal to partner with innovative business, united in BRAITH, makes it increasingly inadequate to the new technological realities in the economy. Social dialogue is reduced to a conversation about minimum incomes and pensions, a ceiling on price increases and electricity subsidies. All this keeps us permanently at the bottom, further and further away from advanced countries and wastes the energy of almost our only competitive advantage – the strong human talent in the technological sphere.
The budget is not just numbers, it is a vision. Our entry into the eurozone is not a goal of the budget, but a tool for realizing a clear vision, which our country once again does not have.
BRAITH Board of Directors:
AIBEST
Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT)
Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM)
Bulgarian Entrepreneurial Association (BESCO)
Information and Communication Technology Cluster (ICT Cluster)
Institute for Agricultural Strategies and Innovations,
Cluster “Mechatronics and Automation”,
Cluster Renewable Energy Sources,
Cluster “Thrace Economic Zone”,
Cluster “Artificial Intelligence Bulgaria”
