Elitsa Barakova handed to the Minister the documents of the Social Enterprises in Bulgaria Forum - Roadmap and Index of social entrepreneurship.
Minister of Economy Teodor Sedlarski met representatives of social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. The participants had the opportunity to present the projects they are working on and the problems they encountered during their work.
"Supporting entrepreneurship is one of the main tasks we put into our short mandate. The purpose of our first meeting with you is to identify together the most important steps, ideas and projects." This was stated by Minister Sedrarski at the opening of the discussion, initiated for the first time in the Ministry of Economy.
Elitsa Barakova, Executive Director of the BCause Foundation, presented to the Minister the Roadmap for the Promotion and Development of Social Enterprises in Bulgaria (2015-2020) and the Index for Evaluation of the Environment for Development of the SE in Bulgaria. The two papers were developed by the BCause Foundation and the Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law following consultations with representatives of non-governmental organisations involved in the topic of social entrepreneurship development - the members of the Social Enterprises in Bulgaria Forum, as well as representatives of state institutions related to the foreseen measures (Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Employment Agency, Agency for People with Disabilities, Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises).
Elitsa Barakova presented the content of the two documents and pointed out that social entrepreneurship in our country is at the beginning of its development and that for growth there is a lot of learning. She stressed that the support of the Ministry of Economy is necessary, including the dissemination of good examples.
Barakova reminded the position of the Social Enterprises in Bulgaria Forum that the funding programmes should be more in one cycle and that competition should not be created for this support between entrepreneurs and municipalities.
"I believe that private investors in Bulgaria, like in other countries, will look at this sector if they get to know it," said Elitsa Barakova. "That's why I expect the Ministry to do something to speed up this process."
In response, the Ministry of Economy undertook, together with BSMEPA, to organize a conference on social entrepreneurship, which would give more publicity and information about good practices today in our country. The ministry proposed to make a package or portfolio of successful examples to be provided to investors and thus serve as a tool to support the link between social entrepreneurs and institutions.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister of Economy Lachezar Borissov, Director of the European Funds for Competitiveness Directorate, Ivelina Peneva, Deputy Director of the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BSMEPA), Advisor to Minister Sedrarski Vassil Karaivanov and experts from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. Iva Tzolova, member of ABLE's Board of Directors, Julia Georgieva, project manager of Here-There Association, Yuri Valkovski, director of the Change Foundation, part of the Reach for Change network, Boryana Velkova from " United Ideas for Bulgaria ", Ashod Derandonian from "Listen up", Yavor Gotchev from Treatment without Borders and Bulgarian Career Forum and others.
The participants in the discussion united several proposals for the successful development of social enterprises in Bulgaria, namely: promotion and sustainability, equal treatment, creation of conditions for interaction, consultations, open dialogue and shared responsibility among all the parties concerned. Entrepreneurs also raised the issue of reducing administrative burdens by providing a package of incentives, as well as providing quick and affordable administrative procedures.
