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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
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