SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government has drafted a programme for significantly reducing bureaucratic obstacles for doing businesses in the country by cutting the number of required permits and licences in the next two years, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said on Monday.
The programme aims to improve the Business climate and make it easier to start a business in the European Union newcomer in line with the requirements of the European Commission, Stanishev told a joint conference of government officials and business representatives.
Bulgaria has the second best investment climate in Europe after Denmark and aims to climb to the top in 2009, Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov told the same conference.
Bulgaria introduced a flat income tax of 10% as of January 2008 after cutting corporate tax to 10% from 15% in 2007, aiming to attract more foreign investments and enhance Business activity. Bulgaria relies on foreign investments to cover its swelling current account shortfall which widened to 21.6% of the country's GDP last year from 15.7% in 2006 mainly due to rising trade deficit. The government expects the current account gap to widen to 21.9% of the projected GDP this year.
The government programme also envisages the launch of an on-line Information system describing the Business regulations administered by the local governments in Bulgaria.
Currently only 392 regulations of Business activity are legitimate while another 1,151 had been introduced without legal grounds, the chairman of Bulgaran Industrial Association, Bozhidar Danev, told the conference.
Bulgarian businessmen have often blamed local authorities for incompetence and deliberate inconsistencies in regulations that create opportunities for corruption, Danev said.
In January the European Commission recommended to Bulgaria to urgently strengthen its administrative capacity, and in particular focus on key government functions including regulatory authorities and the judiciary, take rapid measures to cut red tape and shorten procedural delays in order to improve the Business environment especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and facilitating Business start-ups.
Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski said last week Bulgaria will outsource the auditing of projects seeking financing from the European Union to ensure greater transparency after the bloc suspended funding to the country under several programmes over suspected fraud earlier this year.
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