Round Table
July 23, 2003

On July 23, 2003 Coalition 2000 and the Center for the Study of Democracy organized a round table "The Gray Economy in Bulgaria - Recent Trends".

Dr. Boyan Belev, CSD Senior Fellow, presented the book "The Informal Economy in the EU Accession Countries: Size, Scope, Trends and Challenges in the Process of EU Enlargement", which is a product of the cooperation between Bertelsmann Foundation, the World Bank and the Center for the Study of Democracy. The book presents the positive and negative effects of the informal economy, various methods for assessment and comparative analysis of its manifestations in the EU accession countries. Mr. Ruslan Stefanov, Project Coordinator at CSD Economic Program, presented data on the latest trends in the size and manifestations of gray economy in Bulgaria, considering the policies recently undertaken by the Government. He highlighted the importance of improving the business environment and the necessity of more precise measures by the various ministries. Mr. Todor Yalamov, Coordinator of the Information Technologies Group at ARC Fund made a presentation about the gray economy in the IT sector. He defined its scope, size and how often the different manifestations of the gray economy in the IT sector are met. Mr. Boyko Nikolov, Chief of Intellectual Property Department at the National Service for Combating the Organized Crime, made a historical review on the Bulgarian manufacture of illegal compact disks and underlined the necessity of institutional cooperation in order to prevent the inclusion of Bulgaria for a second time in the black lists of intellectual property pirates. Mr. Vassil Vassilev, Chairman of the Board of Directors, BAIT, together with his colleagues Mr. Georgi Vassilev and Mr. Yordan Kissiov presented some interesting cases of fraud and recommended stronger control over imported goods, intellectual property and copyrights. Ms Sasha Bezuhanova, BIBA Vice-President stressed that it is necessary to consolidate and formulate common interests in the IT sector. Mr. Georgi Brashnarov, Member of the Board of Directors of BASSCOM association, confirmed a positive trend of cooperation and work with international companies, which reduces the size of the gray economy. He pointed out that the creation of an integrated information platform for registration would increase this effect even further. Mr. Valentin Vidolov, Deputy Chief Tax Inspector at the General Tax Directorate, presented several cases of tax fraud through Internet.

Related links:

Round table program and presentations

Bulgaria Development Gateway

Media coverage