[size=75:31wdr45a]novinite 24 December 2009

Bulgaria Finance Minister Predicts Doubled Personal Incomes in 5 Years

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has declared on Thursday that the country already has a stable, sustainable fiscal policy.

On a two-day visit to the north eastern region of Silistra, Djankov said that Bulgaria should also have a sound national economic strategy for the period after the crisis, along with regional strategies for economic development consistent with their specific and local needs. He said that the Bulgarian government is already working on these issues.

"
And, when moving out of this crisis, when we have more fiscal opportunities, which I hope will already be a fact in four or five months, we will also be able to finance these regional strategies,"
said the Finance Minister.

He commented that development of the regions had been ignored over the last 20 years, a factor that has led to increased urbanization at the expanse of rural areas.

"
That is why in Bulgaria there is a strange process in which cities grow very large, and small settlements get smaller and smaller, and this is actually part of regional development - what conditions the state, along with businesses and through EU funds, can provide, so that there is no such huge process of migration,” he explained.

He said he believed that there were opportunities over the next five years for Bulgarians to double the size of their incomes. According to him, changes in state administration could also then be made on a more equitable basis, instead of the administrative base being squeezed into Sofia, the largest city in the country.