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“There must be respect for those who manufacture and pay taxes. The topic of efficiency and transparency of public expenditures is of utmost importance. It is not enough to talk about budget allocation, we should talk more about budget revenues, which are based on consumption and manufacture”, the Candidate for President of the Republic of Bulgaria nominated by BSP, Mr. Ivaylo Kalfin said at a meeting with the heads of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI). The meeting was held on 18 October 2011 at the headquarters of BIA, at the invitation of the three nationally representative employers’ organizations. According to Mr. Kalfin it is wrong to organize and revolve our entire policy around EU funds. “The funds are intended to build upon the national policy and not the other way around”, the Presidential Candidate reckons. According to him, there aren’t incentives and supportive mechanisms encouraging the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and consumption has shrunk because of the frozen incomes. “The economic crisis is becoming a social crisis, and later on will turn into a political crisis”, Ivaylo Kalfin predicted.

He underlined quality education and transparent administration as his main priorities, basis for economic development and jobs creation. “At the moment there is no predictability, the administration is clumsy, slow and often incompetent, investors are fleeing, the gap between the poor and the rich is getting bigger, and the middle class is disappearing”, Mr. Kalfin outlined the picture in the country.

The Presidential Candidate expressed concern about the large percentage of children dropping out of the education system. “These are young Bulgarian citizens that have to contribute to the development of the country, and this cannot be done without education”, Mr. Kalfin stated. According to him, another serious problem is the large number of unemployed university graduates. The solution to this problem is to change the way of funding eduction. It should be based on specific criteria, including realization of university students on the labour market, number and quality of scientific publications, relations with business, etc.

BCCI’s President, Tsvetan Simeonov expressed the opinion that more work for economization of the foreign policy is needed. “We all know and see how often foreign ambassadors visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when companies from their countries have problems. We would like our representatives abroad to be just as active in defending the interests of Bulgarian business”, Tsvetan Simeonov said. He asked the Presidential Candidate how he intends to use his Constitutional right to address the Parliament; his right to veto laws; as well as what is his attitude towards the reform of the Bulgarian army.

“I would use my right to address the Parliament much more often, in order to show that the National Assembly is the most important institution in Bulgaria, in opposition to its neglecting by Prime Ministers”, Mr. Kalfin said. As far as the right of veto is concerned, the Presidential Candidate considers that through a change in the Constitution a requirement for larger majority when voting presidential veto in the Parliament should be introduced, because the current rules to a large extent make exercising this Presidential right pointless. “We should stop talking about reforms in the army in order to stabilize the system of defense”, Ivaylo Kalfin said. According to him the word “reform” is practically used as a cover up for “laying off”. “The military industry and the army should have more development opportunities, because at the moment the Bulgarian army is limited mainly to having defensive functions during NATO’s missions”, Kalfin said.

“We agree that it is necessary to think of the revenue part of the budget first. We shouldn’t stand in the way of business and especially in the way of SMEs because they are the backbone of competitiveness”, the President of  BICA Vasil Velev said. According to him, the practice to make laws which are convenient for the administration or openly pursue the goals of certain lobbies remains. Mr. Velev called for moderate forms of protectionism and activeness of the Presidential institution as far as the education reform is concerned. 

The Executive President of BIA Bozhidar Danev said that the first step to be taken is recovering investment and industrial consumption, and only then we can talk about renewing civil consumption. “There is a substantial decline in raw materials and energy consumption, for example. This is what we have to restore for our economy to start working. The unions are delusional that by raising salaries we will recover the economic environment”, Bozhidar Danev said. He urged Mr. Kalfin to commit to using his right of veto on any law, for which an impact assessment hasn’t been carried out.

“We need a well-functioning judicial system; we need working and enforceable laws. At the moment our country is suffocating enterprising Bulgarians. SMEs are dying not because there are no incentives for them, but because they aren’t given any support.”, the President of BIA Sasho Donchev said and asked the Candidate how he evaluates what has been happening in the world in the last month.  

In response, Ivaylo Kalfin noted that in times of crisis the word “justice” is very important. He added that “Many people saw that the ones suffering the consequences of the financial crisis are not those that caused it, but regular people. Financial institutions were saved by the national budgets, i.e. by tax-payers and those tax-payers felt cheated. In Bulgaria we have a model of what is happening around the world on a small scale – no sense of justice, which causes pressure.”

According to Sasho Donchev, the global economic crisis was in fact caused by countries that allowed having excessive state debt. According to him, excessive state interference in the economy also has a negative impact and causes cyclic crises. “If the state could play a key role in economy, then 22 years ago we wouldn’t have undertaken changes. The state should remember that it was established to carry out other functions. We have all forgotten why countries were established and why money was invented, and the symbiosis between the state and finances leads to crises”, Donchev said and added that “Justice, state and law and different things. In 1947 the state expropriated people’s property in a quite legal manner. 45 years later it is expropriating people’s labour, again quite legally. The results of labour are no longer a criterion for prosperity. People don’t believe that by working they can succeed. This faith must be restored for us to move forward. We need to work on the education and culture of Bulgarians, so that they can change their country. The Presidential institution has a lot of leverages to change attitudes, to educate, to give ideas and provoke dialogue in society. Help Bulgarians understand that they are citizens because of the taxes they pay”, Sasho Donchev appealed. 

18.10.2011