Bulgarian Companies’ Assessment of Business and Investment Climate in Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) published at the beginning of May results of a survey conducted among companies and industry structures on business and investment climate in Bulgaria. The survey results also include specific proposals to boost investment in the country.
More than 80% of all respondents gave an excellent or good score for the corporate and income tax rates as well as for the financial stability of the country – both having biggest impact on the business and investment environment in the country. Negative assessments concern education and the legal system.
The companies’ priorities for this year mainly relate to the search for new markets – for 86%. Second comes the investment in employee training – for over 2/3 of respondents.
To the question “What are the three most urgent changes in the business environment that can encourage you to invest more?” the respondents listed the following recommendations: E-government becomes reality, education empowers the business with the right staff, tax breaks measures and a lower social security burden. In order to encourage investment, companies also believe that monopolies should be removed, and the competition improved, including the activity of the state regulators – Financial Supervision Commission, Commission for Protection of Competition, Commission for Consumer Protection.
Compared to the results of a similar survey in 2015, the sharpest improvement was visible in business’ assessment of the country’s financial stability (positive estimates of 83% in 2017, 35% in 2015), and a deterioration is mostly visible regarding the fees collected by the administration (2017: 48% positive estimates, 2015: 64%).
