Dear Members, Partners and Supporters,
The New Year 2026 will add not only new challenges to Bulgaria's development, but also new opportunities for everybody.
After joining Schengen, we added new dimensions to our integration into the EU – free movement and residence. We have already finished tramping the hard road to joining our country to the second most important world currency – the Euro. Even the biggest pessimists already know the benefits and opportunities, gained from using this currency. But they will become a reality and will start functioning most effectively for those who comply with the challenges of today's realities, such as reducing carbon emissions and their impact on the climate, mitigating the effects of the more and more frequent natural disasters, investing in innovations, developing new products and services and perseveringly seeking new partners and markets. These achievements should not distract our attention from keeping the low taxes in Bulgaria, especially with regard to corporate tax, personal income tax, the minor redistributive role of the state and its debt. They will continue to be a prerequisite for the attractiveness of our country as a place for investments.
As authors of the Bulgaria in figures® Publication, which has gained popularity among economists, analysts and investors, we expect to see a more careful overview, made by state institutions, of Bulgaria's critical places in the nearly 30 international rankings, diligently reflected in it. They can become a clear Action Programme to improve the image of our country and, of course, to enhance its attractiveness.
We believe and hope that the further improvement in the quality of the BCCI team’s work to fulfill the tasks, set out in our Articles of Association, the five-year Development Guidelines and the due implementation of our annual Activity Programmes will contribute to:
- a worthy response to the expectations and trust of our members;
- increased interest of the international organisations, of which we are members, of the diplomatic and trade representatives of Bulgaria abroad and of any other interested parties, accredited to our country, in cooperation with the Chamber.
We are sure that our partnership with the GS1 Organisation, which is gaining increasingly big recognition with its achievements in creating a Global Register of the Unique Product Codes (GTIN) and the Unique Location Codes (GLN) and with many other of its services and successes, will continue to open new doors for sustainable development both on a global scale and in Bulgaria – for our members and user companies. These standards will become an increasingly requested basis for the digitalisation of the processes in industry, trade, tourism, medicine, transport, mechanical engineering, as well as in many other areas and last but not least – in public administration.
No one should underestimate the role of artificial intelligence which will make many routine processes easier, will release capacity for creation, creativity and innovation and without taking any jobs from people, will give them the opportunity for new applications of their skills and knowledge and hopefully, will alleviate staff shortage.
A series of law violations in the field of arbitration as a result of unfair arbitration creations made us support the adoption of an additional regulatory framework in this area in order to limit the options for any criminal acts and unfair competition as opposed to the fair arbitration courts – the true places for resolving commercial and civil law disputes. That change will be an additional administrative burden for the functioning of fair arbitration courts but we hope that it will provide the necessary security in this activity.
The rapidly growing number of our partners and supporters does not give me the chance to make even the shortest inexhaustive List of their names in this Address; but I will state once again, as I have done this on many previous occasions, that BCCI will be a reliable and fair party in our relationships and initiatives. It is a privilege for me to thank them all for their helpfulness and contribution which they are giving for our better performance.
At the start of the New Year 2026, I believe that there will be more and more examples of those who continue to invest, create jobs and work tirelessly for the future days of successes!
I wish you health, prosperity and a peaceful and beneficial New Year 2026!
Tsvetan Simeonov
President of BCCI Management Board
