/ world today news/ Bulgarian investors should be respected because, in my opinion, they are the real investors. These are the people who, in the majority, do not invest in shiny cars and tall gates, but in their own business. And in a way that allows them to grow effectively.
There are several factors that determine the business environment. First of all – taxes. We have no objections to the flat tax or 10% profit, because this is really a very valuable advantage for the business. Another question is whether these taxes will be in the service of business. But anyway, it is a crime at 10% not to pay taxes, because the municipality has to build sidewalks, roads, etc.
I would recommend schools and universities to take more care and build professional qualities in their students and graduates. I’ll give you an example – 30 years ago I started working at the Komet subsidiary in the city of Furtim Wald, Germany of Despred, the only forwarder in Bulgaria at the time. Our German colleagues at that time studied until the 9th grade, after which they attended school once on Wednesday and once on Saturday for 2 years, and otherwise worked in the specialty in which they were trained and had a qualifying degree. In this way, a young person at 17 is already a master in the profession. Something we lack here.
Notice how young people in Germany are developing in higher education institutions. There, only those of them who have a lot of money can afford to study general subjects. The others, however, are trained in professional academies – they still receive a bachelor’s degree, but this is the scheme there. This young man for three months goes from morning to night to lectures, three months after that he goes to practice, i.e. was written by the so-called a dual system that is only now being talked about in our country. Yes, in our country there is an ambition to introduce it, but they do not want, as it were, to make it real.
My son graduated in Germany from just such a dual higher education institution. We should rewrite some of their rules that are successful, and not invent new ones that won’t work.
Our business needs well-prepared personnel – there are no two opinions on the matter. Being a technician – being a real technician, being a freight forwarder – being a real freight forwarder – that’s the point. Because every single investor looks around and looks for the right people. And since he can’t find them, what is this country for?
The third indicator that interests an investor is the speed and speed of the design, the legalization of external networks, and the construction itself. It is clear that every single investment process is related to construction. And these material bases, which the native oligarchs bought without money, do not work, because they were not created for modern production. And until they sell them to those who can use them, the country will not move forward. This process is ongoing and I hope it will be completed soon. We, as a company, have bought land from exactly such oligarchs, because, in fact, they are the best quality that have ever been privatized “under the table”.
I am convinced that the Spatial Planning Act should be changed so that investors have a say in the formulation of individual texts. For example, we bought a regulated plot of land in Ruse. He was part of Orgahim, bought by a Spanish company, which abandoned Bulgaria for unknown reasons. Then he sold it to us. We acquired regulated land, which means that it is already specified how high to build, how far from neighbors, what is the percentage of density, etc. Yes, however, I would have to go make a new building plan, work out where the new warehouses would be. And I can’t do that in advance, because it’s a complex thought process that, together with the design, can change the concept, without exaggerating, 50 times. Or if we had started doing a certain thing in the beginning, then after a few months we wouldn’t be interested. It is proper, after the rules of distance, density and height are respected, not to waste six months to a year of the investor to make a new development, which is unlikely to receive any concrete realization.
I also have another question – why do energy, electricity distribution companies, as well as others for water, make investors design, look for companies to implement these projects? Such an approach is not professional. The companies themselves, in my opinion, should implement such projects and make the investor pay for being connected to their networks. By making the substation, they actually deduct your costs, as well as the connection fee, according to the power you want to get, but they forced you to organize the entire investment process beforehand, i.e. to do something that is not related to your profession.
In the beginning, you turn to companies that are not, perhaps, the best. In my opinion, the best are the energy distribution companies themselves – they should do the best project, with the best execution. But in Bulgaria it is not like that. In Europe, the practice is to entrust this process to the energy distribution companies, and not to do it by the investors. The investor only pays for receiving the kilowatts of electricity and that’s it. In our country, all this stretches too long in time, months pass, they always find some reason to deny you building permits, remarks appear… If someone thinks that they can realize something in less than a year, a year and a half, I would just congratulate him. Yes, there are a select few among us who have been given the opportunity to achieve this goal. But mass investors do not have such a chance and… they go to the queue. And with her, everything happens slowly, too slowly.
I will return to the example of our investment in Ruse. Now we received a silent refusal from the mayor – is it possible for an investor who bought 40,000 sq.m. land and wants to create 30 jobs, build 12,000 sq.m. a warehouse base in which to store goods, including for the Romanian market, which will be distributed there by Bulgarian trucks, at some point receive a silent refusal? And after you have appealed to the regional administration, they should reply: we are sorry, but we cannot help you. I don’t want to remind you that Ruse has the highest corruption index for a municipality. This is a small example, but it is everywhere in Bulgaria.
As long as investors have such obstacles, simply nothing will change in the country in the future. Because, imagine a German, if the local authorities had to crush him in this way, would he stay in our country for a week?
When Bulgarian entrepreneurs want to develop, but we don’t have mentors in power, we always encounter obstacles from the administration. I never pay officials bribes. These practices are absurd to me. And here is the result – we wait and nothing happens. Even one of my neighbors in the field in Ruse was told that he will not see electricity after his death, and his company is quite high-quality and sells tractors. They are currently powered by generators. They also produce their own electricity.
At the local level, there is such feudalism in our country that outsiders who intend to develop business are not allowed. The worst part is that these negative signals come from circles that are close to familiar names in power.
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Stoyan Stoyanov, founder and owner of one of the largest forwarding companies in Bulgaria.
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