JA Bulgaria brought together businesses, NGOs and institutions for a snapshot of entrepreneurship in Bulgaria and to set up a development plan, which can work through upgrading the key competence “sense of entrepreneurship and initiative”

Junior Achievement Bulgaria organized the first expert meeting in Sofia within the framework of the EE-HUB initiative in Bulgaria, dedicated to the establishment of Bulgarian HUB for Entrepreneurship Competences and Education. Government and business representatives gathered in Sofia Tech Park to discuss the challenges, achievements and obstacles to the business environment in Bulgaria.

Among the participants in the meeting were Zornitsa Russinova, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Zhelyaz Enev, Director of Economic Promotion Policies Department at the Ministry of Economy, Tanya Hristova, Mayor of Gabrovo Municipality, Eng. Ognian Tsenkov, Mayor of Vidin Municipality, Galina Tomova, CCO assistant/PAO, Citibank Bulgaria, Dr. Rosen Dimitrov, Public Affairs Manager, Novartis Bulgaria.

During the JA Bulgaria Expert Meeting, Bulgaria invited the participants to take part in working groups and to work on an action plan on each of the challenge sectors (education, economics, healthcare), defining specific steps to support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in Bulgaria. Existing European models, good practices and recommendations, prepared by the European EE-HUB, were also presented and discussed.

Mrs. Milena Stoycheva, CEO of JA Bulgaria, opened the meeting by saying: “The HUB‘s mission in Bulgaria is in several directions but the main one that can be summed up is to improve the conditions for the development of entrepreneurial competences and the promotion of innovation among young professionals, through the help of young people, and bringing together different stakeholders in the fields of education, economy, employment and healthcare. Our main vision is to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour as a way of dealing with the economic environment, as a way of thinking, in order to achieve successful economic development of our country and prosperity for the Bulgarian society. The vision of Junior Achievement Bulgaria is “From Entrepreneurial People to a Happy Nation!” And we think this really reflects the goals and the path we have to walk on and which is actually the new reality for a large part of the societies and economies in Europe and the whole world. We hope together, within one year, in cooperation with you all, to create the conditions for the operation of such HUB.

The work and discussion within the framework of the event was held in three thematic working groups “Economy and Employment”, “Education and Culture” and “Healthcare”. Each group had one hour to discuss on 3 questions about the current status and best practices in the sector, identifying stakeholders / organizations in the sector, concrete ideas for building a community to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The Economy and Employment Group was moderated by Nadya Vassileva, President of the Association of Temporary Employment Agencies and Ms. Vera Petkanchin, JA Bulgaria Operations Director, the Healthcare Group was moderated by Dr. Rosen Dimitrov, Public AffairsManager in Novartis Bulgaria, and the head of the Education and Culture Group was Milena Stoycheva, CEO of JA Bulgaria.

The goal of the HUB is to bring together all stakeholders in the entrepreneurship area by providing them with a platform to work on policy making and the implementation of specific measures at national level to develop entrepreneurial competences and education as a key factor in the successful economic development of the country and the prosperity of the Bulgarian society. Internationally, the EE-HUB has been launched with the support of the Citi Foundation, within the #PathwaysToProgress initiative, and the establishment of the HUB in Bulgaria is supported by Citibank Bulgaria and Novartis Bulgaria.

Ms. Galina Tomova from Citibank Bulgaria said: “Citi Foundation focuses on several priorities, one of them being young people and youth programs. When asked why, the answer is quite logical – children are our future and we want to guarantee our future by giving knowledge and skills, by fostering a way of thinking that will help them succeed. In this respect our main partners at the global and local level for many years have been Junior Achievement and we put in action all these initiatives at schools and universities. The EE-HUB initiative raises our partnership to a new level. The next logical step for all the partners in the initiative is to sit around the table and find an answer to how all these good programs and ideas will become more accessible and reach more children and young people.”

Dr. Rossen Dimitrov from Novartis Bulgaria thanked JA Bulgaria for what they have been doing for the young people in the country and shared: “Entrepreneurship is often presented as a process where one makes many mistakes before he or she can achieve great success and great innovation. In medicine, mistakes are inadmissible because they can be fatal. Medical specialists are trained to follow algorithms and work on relevant clinical guidelines to minimize the possibility of mistakes. This changes their attitude and way of thinking. With the participation of Novartis in the HUB‘s initiative, we are trying to change the attitude towards entrepreneurship and demand for health innovations being seen as an opportunity to change the environment work in.”

The initiative is supported by 6 Ministries as well as 20 municipalities which have signed agreements with JA Bulgaria. Zornitsa Russinova, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy, said: “Entrepreneurial skills are key in terms of the skills of the workforce, so that people can easily adapt to modern business and the environment, no matter if they work in the administration, private sectors or have their own business. Entrepreneurship is also an opportunity to create new jobs, so the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy supports entrepreneurship and the development of these skills. ”

The next EE-HUB expert meeting will be international and will be held in Budapest in June, where JA Bulgaria CEO, Milena Stoycheva, will moderate the Leveraging the Impact at Local Level Panel. Business and government representatives from the 6 countries where the EE-HUB launched the pilot phase of the program in 2017 will take part in the discussion in the Hungarian capital, including Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary.

Another round table will be organized in Bulgaria at the end of June 2018 to re-engage all stakeholders and start work on concrete steps and an action plan on ways to introduce entrepreneurship thinking across the different sectors of the socio-economic life in Bulgaria.