Veliko Tarnovo GDP per capita, current prices, BGN (2009) 5716 Population (2011) 257560 Employment rate of the population over 15 years 41,4 (2011) Area (sq. km.) 4661,6 Overview Veliko Tarnovo is located in the North-Central Region of Bulgaria. Besides the district centre Veliko Tarnovo town, it includes 335 populated areas in 10 municipalities: Veliko Tarnovo, Svishtov, Polski Trambesh, Pavlikeni, Suhindol, Strajitsa, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Lyaskovets, Zlataritsa, and Elena. Statistics gives the Veliko Tarnovo a leading position in areas such as education and healthcare, where the district has traditionally performed very well over the last ten years. Infrastructure in the district is gradually improving, and the results in the score under the „Environment“ criterion remain close to the national average. The major problems in Veliko Tarnovo include the result of the rapidly worsening demographic situation, less favourable business environment, and the traditionally low level of foreign direct investment in the district. In the group of indicators on which the social environment is assessed, Veliko Tarnovo scores one of the worst results in the country. Surveys among businesses and citizens show a relatively positive appreciation of the performance of local administration and satisfaction with aspects of the social environment that is close to the country average. Weak Unsatisfactory Average Good Very Good Economy Business Environment Infrastructure Demography Education Health Service Environment Social Environment 57 Economy The district‘s poor performance under most of the indicators in the „Economy“ group is a consequence of the unfavourable demographic situation, the low economic activity in the district (judging by the relatively small number of enterprises) and the traditionally low levels of foreign direct investment. At the end of 2011, the total volume of foreign investment in non-financial enterprises amounted to a meagre EUR 67.3 million. Only Vidin, Kyustendil, Montana, Silistra, Haskovo, and Yambol scored lower on this indicator. The gross domestic product per capita has been increasing without exception since 2004, and this trend continued even in 2009, when most districts in the country reported a decline. However, the final product per capita grew more slowly than the national average. The average income per household remained relatively high, the 2010 level being only 4% lower than the national average. Veliko Tarnovo is one of the areas with the fastest growing income per capita in the period 2001-2011, due mainly to the low baseline values at the beginning of the period when the district was at the bottom of the national ranking. The number of persons employed reached 78,000 in 2008. The onset of the crisis brought about a drop of nearly 10%, that pushed the index back to 2002 levels. In 2011, the employment rate of the population over 15 years in the district increased by 1.5 percentage points to 41.4%, but still remains below the national average of 45.6%. As of 5.12.2011, the municipalities within the district have absorbed just over EUR 27 million from the EU operational programmes. Relative to the number of the local population, the uptake rate is about 4 % higher than the national average. Agriculture in the district is highly consolidated and this trend is still continuing; during the last decade, grain production gradually replaced the traditionally strong vegetable growing and canning industry. Business Environment According to the business survey carried out in the spring of 2012, the main obstacles to doing business are corruption in the municipal and district administration, the inadequate size of the local market and the lack of confidence in the local judiciary. For the greater part, municipalities have not yet achieved the full use of the „one-stop-shop” service. Nevertheless administrative service is rated positively by businesses, giving it a score on the quality of administrative services close to the national average. Over 60% of business respondents had not used electronic services provided by the local authorities over the past 12 months before the survey. The rating given to the quality of electronic services by their users is relatively high. A comparison between the tax policies of separate municipalities shows strong differences in the rate of tax and charges. In most places, the amount of tax on vehicles, real estate tax, and retail license tax are still higher than the national average for 2012. Most taxes in Veliko Tarnovo Municipality are significantly higher than those in the rest of the district. Infrastructure The urban infrastructure is gradually improving, but at the same time smaller municipalities have difficulties in carrying out similar projects. The density of the road and railway network in the district is above the national average. However surveys among citizens and businesses cite the poorly developed infrastructure as a major disincentive for local business development. Given the coverage and level of urbanization of the district, the share of households with Internet access remained quite low in the period up to 2010. Only in 2011 this percentage increased to the national average of 45%. In recent years, there were problems with the water supply network leading to significant losses in the transport of water. During 2008-2010, losses decreased from 83.06 to 61.12 million cubic meters per year, yet they continue to be significantly above the national average. Higher losses (in volume) were reported only in large districts such as Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Sofia (city). In proportion to the number of population in Veliko Tarnovo District, its transport loss of water is the highest after Pazardzhik, Sliven and Yambol. Demography Over the period 2001-2011, the population of Veliko Tarnovo District has decreased by nearly 12%. During this period, the age dependency of the population continued to deteriorate, mainly due to a decrease of the number of young people in the district. By 2009, the ratio of the number of people over 65 to those aged less than 14 had been increasing at a rate close to the national average, but since then the divergence has increased sharply. While in 2009 adults from this group were about 58 % more than children under the age of 14, in 2011 58 this indicator reached values of over 70%. During the entire period from 2001 to 2011, the rate of natural increase of the population remained negative, with values worse than the national average. Data on net migration were more favourable until 2008, i.e. the number of people who moved into the district exceeded the number of people who left it. After 2009, migration generally slowed down, but the number of those who left the district in recent years far exceeds the number of newcomers. At the end of 2011, 69.4% of the population lived in urban areas, that is close to the national average. At the same time, the population density against the territory of the populated areas remained below the country average. Education Veliko Tarnovo occupies one of the leading positions in the country in terms of education. The good performance of the district is mainly due to strong indicators in higher education. In the period from 2000 to 2011, the number of students in the district has increased from 20,000 to 25,000 people. Another positive factor is the relatively high percentage of the population aged 25 to 64 years with higher education degree (compared to the country average), with one in four persons in the district having obtained such a degree. The good performance in higher education makes up for the deepening problems in primary and secondary education. Over the period 2000-2011, the number of teachers and students in primary and secondary education has decreased by 32.8% and 33.2%, respectively. One in five schools in the district was closed. Veliko Tarnovo ranks sixth according to the proportion of school dropouts: 3.32 per cent for 2011. In the school years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009, students from the district who passed school-leaving exams in Bulgarian language and literature achieved better results than the national average. In the 2009/2010 school year, however, the number of students who scored worse than the lowest „passing“ grade (3.00) doubled, reaching 6%; similar results persisted during the following years. Healthcare During the review period, the number of hospitals remained constant despite the decrease of the total population and the gradual deterioration of the age structure. It did not affect the number of specialised doctors in the district, with the exception of physicians specialised in internal medicine whose number decreased by more than half in the last 10 years. For the same period, the number of GPs also decreased by about 20%. The number of persons with health insurance in the district was increasing, in parallel with the rest of the country, and in 2011 reached 216,849 people, or 84% of the population. The majority of surveyed local residents rate their health status as satisfactory. For the period 2001-2011, the number of patients who sought hospital treatment has remained stable: between 50 and 60 thousand a year. Under this indicator, the district reported a decline in 4 of the last 6 years. At the same time, the local population‘s confidence in the quality of services provided by hospitals remains above the national average. The percentage of people who had to leave the boundaries of their district to receive the healthcare services they needed is low, too. Social Environment According to the indicators included in the „Social Environment“ category, Veliko Tarnovo is one of the most poorly performing districts. This is mainly due to the high proportion of persons living in households with low intensity of economic activity (12.2% in 2009) and the high percentage of the population living in material deprivation (66.7% in 2009), with only Kardzhali, Targovishte, and Yambol reporting less favourable results under the second indicator.