Regional PRofiles: IndIcatorS of development Sofia 2013 PB 1 Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development Institute for Market Economics Sofia 2013 PB 1 The study “Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development” is a part of a three-year project financed by the America for Bulgaria Foundation. Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development © Authors: Desislava Nikolova, Ph.D., Aleksander Tsvetkov, Ph.D., Petar Ganev, Yavor Aleksiev, Nikolay Valkanov © Editor: Yordan Kalchev, Ass. Prof., Ph.D. © Translation: Valentina Rasheva, Stefan Velichkov, Diana Botusharova © Editor: Desislava Nikolova, Ph.D. The publication is distributed free of charge. Copyright of this publication is the property of Institute for Market Economics and the America for Bulgaria Foundation. ISBN 978-954-8624-36-7 2 3 2 3 4 5 Content Acknowledgments -----------------------------------------9 Foreword ------------------------------------------------------- 11 Executive Summary ---------------------------------------13 Types of regional profiles 2013: clustering according to the socio- economic condition and development of districts --------------------------------17 What factors make some districts rich and well-developing while others are poor and underdeveloped? -------------------------23 The Labour Market during the Years of Crisis and Stagnation ----------------------27 Tax Policies at the Local Level -----------------------35 Blagoevgrad ---------------------------------------------43 Pleven -------------------------------------------------------127 Bourgas ----------------------------------------------------49 Plovdiv -----------------------------------------------------133 Varna ---------------------------------------------------------55 Razgrad ----------------------------------------------------139 Veliko Tarnovo ------------------------------------------ 61 Ruse -------------------------------------------------------- 145 Vidin District --------------------------------------------67 Silistra ------------------------------------------------------- 151 Vratsa ------------------------------------------------------- 73 Sliven --------------------------------------------------------157 Gabrovo -------------------------------------------------------79 Smolyan ----------------------------------------------------163 Dobrich -------------------------------------------------------85 Sofia (capital) --------------------------------------------- 169 Kardzhali ----------------------------------------------------- 91 Sofia -------------------------------------------------------175 Kyustendil ------------------------------------------------97 Stara Zagora --------------------------------------------181 Lovech -------------------------------------------------------103 Targovishte ---------------------------------------------187 Montana ------------------------------------------------- 109 Haskovo ---------------------------------------------------193 Pazardzhik ----------------------------------------------- 115 Shumen --------------------------------------------------- 199 Pernik ------------------------------------------------------ 121 Yambol -----------------------------------------------------205 Methodology ---------------------------------------------- 211 Appendix ----------------------------------------------------222 4 5 6 7 The America for Bulgaria Foundation is proud to sponsor the publication of ‘Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development’, now in its second edition. The positive feedback we received on the first edition, published in 2012, adds to our confidence that this comprehensive and up-to-date picture of regional development in Bulgaria will provoke wide interest among citizens, businesses and media outlets. We also hope it will assist government agencies in their strategic planning. ‘Profiles’ highlights the economic and social achievements of each of Bulgaria’s 28 districts as well as pinpoints the challenges. It demonstrates the strong impact that public policies -- good or bad -- have on local economies, the business environment, labor markets and standards of living. The second edition is published at an important moment. The Bulgarian government currently is in the process of developing the documents that will lay the basis for Bulgaria’s utilization of more than 6 billion euros between 2014 and 2020 under the EU Cohesion Policy. We hope that the wealth of data and analyses presented in this volume will be a useful reference to Bulgarian authorities as they develop policies aimed at the sustainable development of the economy. The America for Bulgaria Foundation is pleased to work with the Institute for Market Economics on the ‘Profiles’. We hope that this annual publication will advance and strengthen a vibrant market economy in Bulgaria as a centerpiece in the missions of both institutions. Patrick H. Bracken President of America for Bulgaria Foundation 6 7 8 9 Acknowledgments We of the Institute for Market Economics’ team would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the America for Bulgaria Foundation for the assistance and financial support provided to the Institute’s long-term effort within the sphere of regional development. The Foundation’s team did not just provide the funding for this publication, but from the very onset it embraced the idea of this type of study, and actively participated in the working process. Without their support, this publication would not have happened. Special gratitude is due to our partners from Regiostat who worked side by side with us throughout this project and made substantial contribution to this publication. Our work on methodology, statistical analysis, and clustering of districts would have been very difficult without their help. The Pragmatica Agency did a great job conducting the sociological survey and presenting the results in a timely manner. We are grateful as well to the members of the project’s Advisory Board, whose comments and critique have been of great benefit and improved this publication: Prof. Vesselina Troeva, Ph.D. Arch. (National Centre for Regional Development PLC), Dr Docho Mihaylov (Agency for Socio- Economic Analysis Foundation), Dr Evgeni Evgeniev (World Bank), Lachezar Bogdanov (Industry Watch Group Ltd.), Nadezhda Yarlovska, Dipl. Eng. (National Centre for Regional Development EAD), Ass. Prof. Dr Neno Dimov (Kliment Ohridski Sofia University), Olga Chugunska (Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry), Tsvetan Simeonov (Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry), and also to Lenko Lenkov (America for Bulgaria Foundation) and Mariya Zlatareva (UNDP Bulgaria) who participated in the Advisory Board as observers. We would also like to thank the team of the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives Foundation for the advice on all indicators and issues in the field of justice. We feel obliged to the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) for the overall support for the project. Regional BCCI representatives met our teams in most districts across the country, and the discussions we had were very informative and useful. We are grateful to all those we met with during our travels around districts and who helped us make sense of the raw data on regional development. We are extremely grateful to Ass. Prof. Dr Yordan Kalchev, Ph.D. for the great scientific editorial work resulting in this publication. Despite pressing deadlines, Ass. Prof. Dr Kalchev managed to eliminate some inaccuracies in the publication, and his comments resulted in a much improved text. Any inaccuracies or errors in this publication are entirely our responsibility. Gathering the necessary information for this study was not just an adventure but required a lot of hard work by our team. We are grateful to the National Statistical Institute for the collaboration that, in spite of some difficulties, finally paid off and we obtained all data we needed. We appreciate the assistance of nearly 230 municipal administrations that responded to the questionnaire on the level of local taxes and fees, the stage of development of electronic services and the one-stop-shop principle. We believe that in the future editions, we will have reasons to thank also all the remaining municipalities which were not as helpful and actually violated the Access to Public Information Act. Finally, we would like to thank all the professionals who worked on the print edition of Regional Profiles and on the dedicated website of the project: our partners from MTR Design did excellent work on the website, and the Neda Art team provided yet another pleasant surprise with the original ideas for the cover and the layout of the print edition, as well as with its excellent performance. Institute for Market Economics 8 9 10 11 Foreword This year’s edition of „Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development of Development” aims to provide objective, timely and comprehensive information on the development of Bulgarian regions. The publication aims to paint as complete a picture as possible, covering both the economic and social aspects of life in the regions. Last year’s edition attracted great amount of interest and was very positively appreciated, which convinced us of the need for such a study focused exclusively on the regions. We also received many constructive critical remarks; these further motivated our team and were, for the most part, reflected in the present publication. Regions are subjected to overview at the level of administrative districts (oblasti); this division was determined by the available data. Going down to the