BEAIT: It's time for the high-tech economy to become the focus of the National Council for Trilateral Cooperation

Technology is a horizontal level without which no industry can be competitive in the new realities. The global economy is undergoing a colossal technological transformation and, against this background, Bulgaria is threatened to fall behind irreversibly if it does not implement high technologies at all levels in the economy and the public sector.

This is the reason for the formation of an unprecedented union of all influential associations, clusters and companies representing the high-tech economy of Bulgaria, within the framework of the Bulgarian Employers' Association for Innovative Technologies (BEAIT).

The new format of unification was presented at a special press conference by the chairmen of one of the largest organizations, part of BEAIT - Dobroslav Dimitrov, Chairman of the Board of BEAIT and member of the Advisory Council of BASKOM, Iliya Krastev, member of the Board of BEAIT and Chairman of Board of Directors of AIBEST, Svetozar Georgiev, member of the Board of Directors of BEAIT and chairman of the Board of Directors of BESCO, and Svetlana Boyanova, member of the Board of Directors of BEAIT and chairman of the Institute for Agricultural Strategies and Innovations.

They stated the firm intention of BEAIT to apply for participation in the new National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, since, according to them, the economic realities in Europe and the world require a high level of awareness and detailed knowledge of the specifics of technological processes - know-how that BEAIT has and is ready to share it with society, the state and business.

"We lend a hand to all sectors and businesses, to the state and institutions, to the people in order to successfully guide Bulgaria through this serious challenge. Our partnership with the other employer organizations in the Tripartite Council is already activated with a number of joint initiatives, but we believe that this dialogue should be formalized at the highest level to be even more effective. We need a qualitative jump in the productivity of all industries. "Technology is the new literacy, which also confronts education with a completely new paradigm," said Dobroslav Dimitrov.

"In the politically unstable situation in which we operate as an economy and a country, global changes are happening at lightning speed, and this speed we cannot even imagine. My expectation is that once the elections around the world are over, this speed will increase even more. And we, as an economy and as politicians, continue to be focused on the past. We talk too little about the future and too much about the past. How quickly we adapt will be of key importance for the development of the Bulgarian economy. We constantly talk about catching up, catching up. And I want to talk about leadership, about how we can be the fastest, and not constantly catching up with someone. The others must catch up with us. And this conversation has actually been absent for a long time in both political and economic contexts. The purpose of the BEAIT association is to be leaders. This is possible! There are great people in Bulgaria who can do it, and how we translate what is happening in the world and relate it to the Bulgarian reality is one of the difficult tasks we will face. We need a translation in real time, which is expressed in policies for anticipatory development," said Iliya Krastev.

BEAIT will defend specific strategic policies in the field of business environment, education and the rule of law, which will guarantee a qualitative jump in the productivity of the Bulgarian economy and the efficiency of the public sector, so that Bulgaria will be among the leading countries in Europe.

Svetozar Georgiev emphasized that BESCO members are from over 70 industries. "Every day we observe how difficult it is to put Bulgaria on the world map as a good place to do business. And in the last 10 years, the sector of the economy with high added value has proven that it is possible to conquer the world from Bulgaria: the largest cargo drone in the world was created by two Bulgarian brothers, we send nano-satellites into space, Michelle Obama and Beyonce wear bags and shoes, created by three girls in the town of Peshtera, 4% of all websites in the world are hosted by a Bulgarian company, we already have 4 companies with a valuation of over 1 billion dollars, and there are still quite a few on the way to this achievement.

Today, entrepreneurs from the high added value sector, we declare that we already know how Bulgaria can become the best place for entrepreneurs in Europe. We know the way for our companies to choose to stay in Bulgaria, to see even more Bulgarians who left coming back here, to develop their ideas here and to provide high-paying work for many of our compatriots. We want Bulgaria to be an attractive place for investors, businesses and talent from around the world. We are giving a hand to the politicians in order to do together so that we can live better and faster in the developed country with a strong economy, which we all dream of", said Svetozar Georgiev in turn.

Svetlana Boyanova explained that the idea of ​​such associations as BEAIT is not simply to encourage other sectors of the economy to follow fashionable technological trends, but to be really useful to these sectors to solve their problems and to be more efficient and competitive. She gave an example of the connection between high technology and agriculture. "In recent years, the agricultural sector has faced enormous challenges. We have serious climate changes, water sources are decreasing more and more, there are hailstorms and other adverse weather events. Not to mention that we have a serious change in the trade picture between the EU and third countries. The war in Ukraine also had a serious impact on the sector, not only in Bulgaria, but also in other EU member states. Last but not least, we have very serious internal labor issues. If you now want to buy cherries, it would be difficult for our farmers to provide them for you, since there is no one to pick them and the cherries remain on the trees. In solving all these extremely important issues for agriculture, we need to join hands with high-tech companies and emphasize precision farming, precision fertilization and irrigation to save resources. We want to make mergers together that will benefit people and businesses. We will give all our energy to connect the Bulgarian users of high technologies with those who create them, so that we can move the agricultural sector forward, said Svetlana Boyanova.