site.btaBulgarian Business to Access Lv 7 Bln, Says Minister Lorer

Financial instruments utilized by the Ministry of Innovation and Growth will grant Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises access to 7 billion leva over the next 7 to 10 years, said Minister Daniel Lorer here on Monday. The overall programme will include various loans, grants, government instruments, EU programmes.

The absorption rate of funds will depend entirely on the industry, Lorer said. He specified that one of the programmes is starting at the end of March. The first payments from the Recovery Plan are expected to take place in June. The operational programmes will most likely start this autumn.

The innovation and competitiveness programmes aimed at Bulgarian businesses work in parallel with the EU ones. For the time being, the war has had no effect on them, Lorer said. He pointed out the low level of cybersecurity as a threat to Bulgaria. The government, the municipal administrations, the private sector must all work to improve it, he added.

The sanctions on Russia will have an impact on the global economy, but what it will be is uncertain. The one certain thing is that they will accelerate the energy transition process across Europe, Lorer said. Stopping the purchase of natural gas from Russia would be “the last instrument to sanction Russia”, according to him.

Minister Lorer is taking part in a forum dedicated to innovation and growth and hosted by the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna. The event is attended by industry representatives, academics, the Bulgarian Development Bank, the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria JSC.