A Council of Experts on circular economy and green transition is established. This became clear at a meeting between Minister of Economy and Industry Nikola Stojanov and representatives of the scientific community and employers’ organizations.
‘The Expert Council should work very quickly because it is a fact that Bulgaria is lagging behind in the transition to a circular economy,’ Minister Stojanov said. ‘The main task of its members will be to prepare proposals and a plan with concrete measures and joint actions of business, government and academia to catch up with our lagging behind,’ he explained, adding that ‘representatives of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth and the Ministry of Education and Science will be invited to participate in the council.
Participants in the meeting commented that a completely new approach to environmental protection is needed. ‘Financing actions in this direction by companies is not only an investment in their business, but will also bring added value to our economy,’ the Minister of Economy said. During today’s discussion, emphasis was also placed on the use of production waste as raw material that can be reused or even sold to another company.
Prof. Nikolay Shterev, Chairman of the Association of Economics and Management Teachers in Industry, said it was ‘very important that environmental lessons are included to a greater extent in school education, and universities will have a subsequent role in training future entrepreneurs’.
Tsvetan Simeonov, Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, proposed to create a database of experts in ecology and circular economy, with CV and completed projects, so that enterprises can more easily find trained experts to assist them in this activity. The BCCI is also ready to participate in the preparation of a self-assessment survey for enterprises to be able to check for themselves their level of development in the circular economy.
At today’s meeting Minister Nikola Stojanov presented the upcoming exhibition in Thessaloniki — Forward Green 2023. The event will be held in Thessaloniki in the period 08—10 June 2023 and Bulgaria is an honorary guest country of the exhibition, which guarantees Bulgarian participants an attractive positioning. The exhibition will bring together representatives and experts from the governmental and non-governmental sectors of Greece, South-Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, as well as Asia and America, and will be a platform for discussion, exchange of experiences and initiation of joint projects in the sector.
Minister Stojanov was congratulated by the representatives of the scientific circles for the public way of organizing and conducting the competitions for trade representatives in the Trade and Economic Affairs Offices (TEAO) abroad as a means of attracting motivated and knowledgeable personnel in Bulgaria’s foreign economic policy.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry Yanko Topalov, representatives of the management of the University of Agribusiness and Regional Development, prof. Bozhidar Hadzhiev from the Institute of Economic Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, prof. Nikolay Shterev, Chairman of the Association of Economics and Management Teachers in Industry, Tsvetan Simeonov, Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.