BIC Inobridge continues its commitment to stimulate innovation and business development in the region. The following material offers new perspectives on the issue of interaction between business and local government. Expect interesting details and specific opinions based on extensive research among Ruse companies. These findings can serve as guidelines on how to strengthen and optimize this important aspect of economic development.

The project team "Promoting partnership management in the field of local economic development and improving the investment environment", financed by the Operational Program "Good Governance" 2014-2022 and implemented by the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Municipality of Ruse conducted a survey among 120 companies developing activities on the territory of Ruse municipality from 17 economic sectors. In addition, representatives of 20 companies gave more in-depth interviews, answering questions about how to improve the interaction between them and the administration and giving recommendations to ease the process.

The companies shared their personal impressions of the opportunities for interaction between them and the local government. The results show that, according to nearly half of the companies (45.8%), the local government does not make enough efforts in the process of partnership and cooperation, while a third (29.2%) are of the exact opposite opinion. Nearly 21% of the business representatives indicate that they regularly receive information about local initiatives and have the opportunity to express opinions and opinions.

Some of the conclusions of the survey among companies:

the interaction between business and local government is often reduced to informing in the process of identifying significant infrastructure projects and forming policy;
most of the companies evaluate the local government's efforts to establish partnership and cooperation as insufficiently effective;
a significant portion of local business is unaware of or has no interest in participating in the local policy formulation process in the areas of economic development, investment, local taxes and fees, and property management;
in general, a greater part of enterprises show non-commitment and demotivation to participate in the processes of formulation and changes of local policies;

In order to overcome the challenges and difficulties in effective interaction between the administration and business, it is necessary to:

build mutual trust between the parties;
find common priorities and points of contact to strengthen cooperation;
develop and implement working mechanisms for communication, including to improve feedback.

Read the full analysis of the results from the official page of the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry [here].