Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry Ivaylo Shotev met with the Mayor of Shumen Municipality prof. Hristo Hristov, with the Regional Governor prof. Dobromir Dobrev, with the deputy governor of the region Neli Georgieva and with Nikolay Tonchev — executive director of Shumen Industrial Park. Opportunities for attracting investment in the region, the lack of enough qualified personnel to work in the industries and others were discussed. The meeting was held at the Shumen Municipality Town Hall and was attended by representatives of the local government and business.
‘Our efforts are aimed at reducing the administrative burden and ensuring a favourable and predictable business environment. I am here to listen to the challenges you face and, to the best of the Ministry’s and Government’s ability, to assist. We believe we are sending the right signals to business.’ This was stated by Deputy Minister Shotev during a working meeting and stressed that our country strives to meet the high demands of potential investors in terms of business climate and offering adequate incentives. In his words, investments in Bulgaria are increasing. ‘We had a record number of investments last year,’ Shotev said, adding that he expects stronger economic growth than last year: We are working to reduce the administrative burden and provide a predictable environment for business.
During the meeting, the main challenges in the region were identified as the state of the infrastructure leading to large enterprises, the emergency power and water cuts leading to large technological losses and technical breakdowns of machinery and equipment, as well as the procedures for hiring foreign nationals coming from outside the European Union.