The Economic and Social Council (ESC) hosted a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance to discuss the draft vision of the National Development Programme "Bulgaria 2030". The discussion on the goals and priorities of the future strategic document was organised at the request of the Ministry of Finance for consultation and it is the second one on this topic in the ESC.
The ESC members reviewed the proposed vision in detail and commented in depth the goals and priorities as well as the proposed indicators that would measure our country's progress. They appreciated the proposed document as a good basis to continue the discussions and to be formulated more detailed proposals for new policies and measures to accelerate development of Bulgaria in the next 10 years.
A particular accent in the discussion was the proposal by several ESC representatives to be set a common goal of development in the “Bulgaria 2030” vision, which would be the criteria for the country's development, for faster growth and for faster convergence. According to the participants in the discussion, this is even more necessary because there are already such goals for convergence in several other strategic Bulgarian documents. An integrated goal of the National Development Programme in the next 10 years is also needed to coordinate the other goals and sub-goals, stressed the ESC representatives.
For the second time, the ESC representatives commented that, before the strategic document for the future development of the country was finally adopted, an analysis and conclusions should be drawn up about the implementation of the previous period and the achievements and non-achievements of the “Bulgaria 2020” programme.
The other major topics of discussion were about demography and related to it living standards and inequalities, technological transformation and investment in research and development, education and digital skills, and more.
The representatives of the Ministry of Finance answered questions and accepted the ESC proposals, which will be presented in the further work on the development of the National Programme “Bulgaria 2030”. They informed that according to the concept of developing the national strategic document with a horizon by 2030 it is expected to be discussed with all stakeholders later in October this year. It is expected the Council of Ministers to approve the vision and then to be detailed the government intentions in the various policy areas as well as to develop an indicative financial framework, impact assessment and a mechanism for control and monitoring the programme implementation.