Regional Profiles
Български English
  • Български English
  • News
  • Home
  • News
  • Research
    • Research 2025
    • Research 2024
    • Research 2023
    • Research 2022
    • Research 2021
    • Research 2019
    • Research 2019
    • Research 2018
    • Research 2017
    • Research 2016
    • Research 2015
    • Research 2014
    • Research 2013
    • Research 2012
    • Neural Networks
  • Districts
  • Economic Centres
    • Economic Centres - 2023
    • Economic Centres - 2017
  • Municipal Analysis
  • Data
    • Regional Data
    • Methodology
    • Maps
  • About us
    • About Us
    • Contacts
    • References
    • FAQ
    • Events
    • Working Meetings
RSS

News

14.11.2012Poverty or Tranquility, Work or Fresh Air

Below we have reprinted and translated one of IME’s articles for local media related to the “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012”. The author of the article is Petar Ganev. It was first published in "Trud" newspaper on November 12th, 2012.

Below we have reprinted and translated one of IME’s articles for local media related to the “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012”. The author of the article is Petar Ganev. It was first published in Trud newspaper on November 12th, 2012.

The study “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012”, published by the Institute for Market Economics and presented by Trud newspaper on Friday, shows a rather diverse picture of the country on the basis of the socioeconomic state and development of the regions. Some districts attract investment and offer workplaces, others do not; some people feel so safe in their city that they do not even insure their cars, others are used to the idea that their apartment needs additional protection; some people feel happy in their region, others cannot wait to get out of it in search of better opportunities.

Many of the trends can be identified intuitively, but during the work on the study we discovered some interesting facts, which I think I should shed more light on. Along with those facts we also discovered certain discrepancies in the data, which are very hard to explain. The connection between incomes, happiness and human mobility proved to be a true challenge to decipher. The main factors that bring higher satisfaction with life turned out to be housing conditions, the state of the environment, security and the social environment (that is, communication with neighbors, friends, acquaintances, etc.). Low income and joblessness (or bad working conditions) are the most common dissatisfaction factors. This leads to a higher satisfaction level in underdeveloped, but more tranquil and less polluted districts, such as Smolyan and Kardzali.

Personal satisfaction with life, however, has nothing to do with human mobility. When it comes to emigration from a certain region, the most important reasons are better opportunities (for education, work and income) in other settlements. To cut the long story short, people feel satisfied when their environment is clean and tranquil, but in the long term they seek possibilities for development and higher incomes. This explains the observed migration towards the capital – a much more polluted and less secure place, but one that offers more work opportunities and higher wages.

A comparison between Sofia and Smolyan is very indicative in this respect – harmful emissions in the capital’s atmosphere are 270 times higher than those in Smolyan. The possibility of a crime being committed against every person in Sofia is four times higher than the one in Smolyan. At the same time, the chance of staying jobless is three times higher in Sofia then in Smolyan. GDP per capita is also three times higher in the capital then in the Rhodope district. Having this in mind, in recent years while one person moves from Sofia to Smolyan, four people move from Smolyan to Sofia.

Gabrovo stood out as one of the most interesting regions. As it was expected, it scored well in the economic, business and environmental spheres. It managed to utilize a substantial amount of European funds. Demographics, however, proved to be a serious issue – the dependency ratio (that is, the ratio between elderly people and children) is the worst in the country, surpassing even the one in Vidin. These negative processes are already affecting employment and unemployment in the region and present a serious challenge before the economic development of Gabrovo.

Kardzali is also an interesting example, since it is an economically underdeveloped region, where most of the population lives in villages. Despite these circumstances, in the past 10 years the economy of Kardzali has been showing positive development – in year 2000 this is the poorest district, while now it surpasses Vidin, Razgrad, Silistra, Montana and Sliven. The region scores surprisingly well in the field of high-school education – its children have very high marks on the matriculation exams, while there is a very small share of school dropouts and a small share of repeaters. Good high-school education however does not show yet a clear impact on the qualification of the workforce and the number of higher education graduates in the district.

Varna and Burgas, as expected, fell into the group of regions with good socio-economic development, however, they are still far behind the capital. It was expected that the cities by the seaside will have a well-developed services branch; this fact, however, seems to be linked exclusively to the development of tourism. Other services, like different types of outsourcing (IT support, for example) can be found exclusively in the capital. The big variety of young and well-educated specialists and operational airports make our “seaside capitals” a very good choice for developing such services, which can in turn have a serious impact on employment and untie its dynamics from purely seasonal factors.

Regarding the so-called data discrepancies, I can show you two interesting examples. According to the data provided by NSI, GDP per capita in Pernik has almost doubled in 2008, and the next year it falls to its usual level. In this case, most probably, we are faced with an error in the data of the national statistics, which makes us question the quality of data on local level in general. Another interesting fact is that the number of people with healthcare insurance in Kardzali surpasses the total population of the district. An even more interesting fact is that the healthcare administration in Kardzali learned that from our team. In this case it is likely that there is no mistake. For some reason, in 2009 30 thousand new citizens with healthcare insurance appeared in the district. This, however, leaves unanswered the question what led to this anomaly, which cannot be witnessed anywhere else in the country.

 

The project “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” is carried out with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

To the top Read more

14.11.2012Pressclipping

Coverage of the “Regional Profiles: Indicators for Development 2012” study in national and local media

| Scanned copies of publications in printed media |

National and internet media

  • BNT
  • bTV
  • 24 hours newspaper
  • 24 hours newspaper (2)
  • 24 hours newspaper (3)
  • Sega newspaper
  • Standart newspaper
  • Monitor newspaper
  • Presa newspaper
  • Telegraph newspaper
  • Capital Daily
  • Blitz information agency
  • Darik Radio
  • К2 radio
  • capital.bg
  • dnevnik.bg
  • investor.bg
  • econ.bg
  • vesti.bg
  • darikfinance.bg
  • money.bg
  • economy.bg
  • expert.bg
  • Infobusiness
  • profit.bg
  • offnews.bg
  • trud.bg
  • 3e-news.net
  • duma.bg

International networks

  • 4liberty.eu
  • Stockholm Network

Local media

  • BNR (Shumen)
  • BNR (Blagoevgrad)
  • Focus radio (Pazardzik)
  • Darik Radio (Varna)
  • Darik Radio (Габрово)
  • Darik Radio (Габрово) – 2
  • Darik Radio (Варна) - 2
  • Darik Radio (Stara Zagora)
  • Darik Radio (Dobrich)
  • Darik Radio (Shumen)
  • Darik Radio (Rousse)
  • novjivot.info (Kardzali)
  • nostop.bg (Pazardzik)
  • moreto.net (Varna)
  • targovishtebg.com (Targovishte)
  • gabrovonews.bg (Gabrovo)
  • plovdiv24.bg (Plovdiv)
  • akcent.bg (Rousse)
  • ruseinfo.net (Rousse)
  • ruse24.bg (Rousse)
  • topnovini.bg (Shumen)
  • shum.bg (Shumen)
  • perniktoday.net (Pernik)
  • burgasnovinite.bg (Bourgas)
  • burgasutre.bg (Bourgas)
  • briagnews.bg (Pleven)
  • zovnews.com (Vratsa)

The project “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” is carried out with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

To the top Read more

08.11.2012Presenting "Regional Profiles: indicators of Development"

The study “Regional Profiles: Indicators for Development 2012” was presented on November 8th 2012 at the Press Club of BTA.

The study “Regional Profiles: Indicators for Development 2012” was presented on November 8th 2012 at the Press Club of BTA. About 30 journalists were present at the event. Each of those who attended the event received a paperback copy of the study.

Right before the end of the press conference the website of the study was launched. Until the end of the day the results of the study were covered by a number of top-ranking media, including:

  • Bulgarian national television
  • bTV
  • 24 Hours newspaper
  • Sega newspaper
  • Standart newspaper
  • Monitor newspaper
  • 24 Hours newspaper (2)
  • Darik radio
  • capital.bg
  • dnevnik.bg
  • investor.bg
  • econ.bg
  • vesti.bg
  • darikfinance.bg
  • money.bg
  • economy.bg
  • trud.bg
  • Infobusiness and others

The project “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” is carried out with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

To the top Read more

08.11.2012Materials from the Press Conference

We present you the materials which were handed out at the press conference, dedicated to the presentation of “Regional profiles: development indicators 2012”.


Materials of the press conference, dedicated to the survey

We present you the materials which were handed out at the press conference, dedicated to the presentation of “Regional Profiles: Indicators for Development 2012”.

In these materials you can find information on the basic results of the analyses, conducted as part of the project, as well as IME’s recommendations for improvement of regional competiveness.

  • The handout is available in pdf as well as docx format.
  • The presentation used to present the project is available in pdf format.
  • The districts’ performance grades in each of the 8 categories – economy, infrastructure, business climate, education, etc. are available here.

General conclusions:

  1. Until 2008, all districts demonstrated growth, but the rich ones developed faster than the poor ones; i.e. the gap between them increased and a group of regions that developed much faster than the others emerged;
  2. The gap has increased in the period of economic boom as well as in the period of crisis;
  3. The number of districts with poor socioeconomic profiles or showing negative trends is much bigger than the number of those with good socioeconomic profiles and positive trends;
  4. Demographic developments have an extremely strong – and usually negative – impact on the economic development of the regions;
  5. The high sense of security and the good quality of the environment increase personal satisfaction with life, while work conditions, income levels and the quality of infrastructure bring dissatisfaction;
  6. In spite of rather prolonged negative developments in the poorest regions, the majority of the population in them features rather low mobility;
  7. Proximity to Sofia (the capital) doesn’t have a singular effect on all the neighboring regions and does not automatically bring any advantage;
  8. The central government still plays a major role in local policies; this can be attributed to the unwillingness to delegate more powers to the local authorities;
  9. Even though local policies are restricted by law, they can have a paramount impact on the living conditions and business environment on regional level;
  10. Data is extremely scarce on a regional level, and sometimes its quality is questionable, which casts doubt on the ability of the government (both central and local) to take informed decisions.

Recommendations:

  • A policy cannot have the same effect on all regions, therefore a higher degree of decentralization of the decision-making process is necessary;
  • Real financial independence of the regions is needed; this will allow for differentiated local policies;
  • Parliament should not be able to define the limits of local taxes – the decision and the responsibility for them should be delegated entirely to the local authorities;
  • The regions should benefit from economic development – i.e. they should be entitled to a part of the revenues from as many taxes as possible, especially those connected with local economic activity (for instance, a part of the revenue from VAT, income taxes, corporate profit taxes etc.);
  • Powers of regional authorities with regard to raising revenues and allocating expenditures should be balanced in such a way that they can become more independent from central government transfers;
  • Powers of municipal authorities regarding local economic and social policies should be increased.

 

For more information:

Desislava Nikolova

Chief economist

dnikolova@ime.bg

02/952 62 66

Petar Ganev

Senior Economist

ganev@ime.bg

02/952 62 66

Yavor Alexiev

Economist

yavor@ime.bg

02/952 62 66



To the top Read more

08.11.2012English Version of "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012"

The full English version of the study "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012" will be available in the beginning of December 2012.

The full English version of the study "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012" will be available in the beginning of December 2012.

The goal of IME's team is to make all data and analyses understandable and useful for foreign investors, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.

The availability of detailed information about the characteristics, condition and prospects of the regions of our country are an important prerequisite for the promotion of investment and the increase of transparency and accountability of public policies at the local level.

 

To the top Read more

08.11.2012Welcome to the website of "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012"

We have the pleasure to welcome you to the website of the first edition of "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012", prepared by the Institute for Market Economics and our partners from Microstat Analytics.

We have the pleasure to welcome you to the website of the first edition of "Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012", prepared by the Institute for Market Economics and our partners from Microstat Analytics.

The Bulgarian edition of study was first presented on October 8th 2012.

 

About the Study

The study presents the socio-economical condition and development of the districts in Bulgaria on the basis of 57 indicators, organized in 8 different categories - economy, business environment, infrastructure, demography, education, health, natural environment, and social environment.

In addition to the 28 district profiles, the study includes thematic analyses on topics such as:

    • Local Tax Policy;
    • Main Trends in Primary and Secondary Education;
    • Business Environment and Factors Determining Life Satisfaction in different districts;
    • Cluster Analysis of the 28 districts in Bulgaria.

The study seeks answers to important questions such as:

    • What makes some districts more developed and prosperous, and others less developed and poorer?
    • Which are the districts with higher perception of corruption?
    • Which are the districts with most favorable business environment in Bulgaria?
    • What are the demograohic tendencies in each of the districts?
    • Which districts follow a similar development patterns and why?

What's to come?

    • Pressconference presenting the study;
    • Uploading additional materials and data;
    • Presenting the results from the study in different Bulgarian districts;
    • Organizing round tables and discussions with stakeholders;
    • Regular updates of the website;
    • An English version of the website will be launched in the beginning of December 2012.

The project “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” is carried out with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

To the top Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • ...
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
Download a PDF

Latest news

Math talents on the edge of the map 30.06.2025

If you think that mathematics can only be taught and learned well in mathematics high schools or elite...

The municipalities need more own resources and a share of revenues from personal income taxation 26.06.2025

IME analysis shows opportunities for expanding municipalities' financial autonomy. The budget expenditures...

Yambol District - improvement in education results and rising wages, but limited investment and little tourism 06.06.2025

Gross domestic product, incomes and pensions in Yambol district continue to grow. The share of the working...

Shumen district - growing employment and fast administration of justice, but poor education and little tourism 30.05.2025

The gross domestic product, incomes and pensions in Shumen district continue to grow. The increase in the...

Download a PDF
Regions in Bulgaria
  • Blagoevgrad
  • Burgas
  • Varna
  • Veliko Tarnovo
  • Vidin
  • Vratsa
  • Gabrovo
  • Dobrich
  • Kardzali
  • Kyustendil
  • Lovech
  • Montana
  • Pazardzhik
  • Pernik
  • Pleven
  • Plovdiv
  • Razgrad
  • Ruse
  • Silistra
  • Sliven
  • Smolyan
  • Sofia
  • Sofia (capital)
  • Stara Zagora
  • Targovishte
  • Haskovo
  • Shumen
  • Yambol
All categories
  • Economic development
  • Income and living conditions
  • Labour market
  • Investments
  • Infrastructure
  • Taxes and administration
  • Administration
  • Social development
  • Demographics
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Security and justice
  • Environment
  • Culture
A project of
Institute for Market Economics
Sponsored by
“America for Bulgaria” Foundation
2025  ©  Institute for Market Economics
Created by MTR Design