"There is no chance for a government with the third term“. This was announced in the program “Why, Mr. Minister” the acting minister of innovation and growth Rosen Karadimov. According to him, the constitutional procedure should be extended so that the best possible date for elections in the autumn is determined.
According to Rosen Karadimov, there is a huge value gap between the political elite and society.
„The Bulgarian political elite in recent years is used to making not quite independent decisions and it is a function of other types of decisions. With the exception of a few parties, he tried to bring a neoliberal consensus to Bulgarian society, and there is a moderately conservative consensus in it. When political formations or alliances are created that can consolidate the moderately conservative consensus of the Bulgarian and his world view , Bulgaria will have stable governments”, he explained.
In the words of Rosen Karadimov, from the time of Sergei Stanishev's government, known as the Triple Coalition, it is believed that “the open coalition is a dirty word, an unacceptable compromise, and the behind-the-scenes and undeclared coalition is the honest agreement”. But that's not the case, he said.
Fires in our country
According to the Minister of Innovation and Growth, the government's actions are absolutely timely, adequate, accurate and sparing as much as possible to the people who suffered in the fires.
„There is a country in this situation. All institutional structures were mobilized, the Ministry of Defense became actively involved, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was in the field every day, the Prime Minister is in the field every day, an operational headquarters was formed, a special meeting of the Security Council of the Council of Ministers was held, which decided to two more helicopters are being equipped with water jackets. This council decided the Ministry of Finance to develop a program to assist the victims of the fires outside of conventional measures”, noted Minister Karadimov.
When asked why we do not have a minimum of equipment to respond to severe fires, he replied:
„There are two simple answers. The first – the money was not sufficient and secondly the distribution of the available money was not far-sighted enough to envisage such a technique in such situations. This is for all governments, because equipment is not purchased for two or three years, but for decades.
Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB)
„With the strategy adopted by this Council of Ministers, BBR is already one of the most powerful market instruments of the state to make public policies, where it cannot or should not. The profit problem is not the bank's immediate problem – yes, she is profitable. But if the banking system as a whole has a profit of BGN 3 billion, then BBR has a profit of BGN 30 million. The bank's goal is not to make a profit, the Minister of Innovation pointed out.
“Since the beginning of the year, around 170 loans with a total value of over BGN 80 million have been granted. The guarantee fund has guaranteed 800 companies guarantees for BGN 170 million. The percentage of bad loans is constantly decreasing, they are welded, old,”, he added Karadimov.
He commented on his proposal for the BDB to give low-interest loans to those working in the public sector and entitled to compensation – policemen, firemen, military, teachers.
„When I did it, I was the only minister awarded with a special declaration by a political party that I was campaigning and buying votes. As elections are coming up again, I am afraid to say whether the program is current or not, lest I be accused again. "No commercial bank will provide such a loan because it will not accept the collateral against this loan," he said.
However, Rosen Karadimov stated that the idea is relevant, but must be implemented by a regular government.
Why don't foreign investors come to Bulgaria?
According to the Minister of Innovation and Growth, investor interest is decreasing throughout Europe and they are heading to the USA.
„It is not possible, with gas 4 times more expensive in Europe than in America, that this does not happen. Whole productions are exported from Europe and go to the USA, where energy carriers are much cheaper. I hope that the new European Commission will revise its approach in the field of energy and energy carriers. I was very impressed that Ursula von der Leyen in her program speech before the election used the term “pragmatic Green Deal”. I sense a hopeful subtext in this“, he pointed out.
According to him, Bulgaria can attract foreign investors with its entry into the Eurozone and with the development of industrial parks.
„Starting with land-based Schengen – there are huge losses. Second – reputation and interest rates, Bulgaria's credit rating, security in currency payments, cheaper transactions, attractiveness for foreign investors would be completely different if we were in the eurozone,” said Rosen Karadimov.
“There is no logistics for foreign investments in Bulgaria. 11 parks were financed under our program and should be operational on January 1, 2026. The Ministry of Economy has six to seven parks and that's it. Bulgaria needs about 35 industrial parks. This is not an enterprise, it is terrain, logistics and infrastructure that the investor must come to, he added.