Public policy analysis under the Democracy Network Program in the areas: competitiveness, SME development, tax policy and pension reform

From the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2002 the Center for Economic Development took an active part in the successful implementation of the three-year project under the Democracy Network of USAID. The CED’s main goal was to increase citizens’ participation in public policy formulation and implementation, and thus – the responsiveness of national and local governments. We achieved our goal by promoting new public policy development approach, which brought public and private sectors’ representatives together to formulate policies and improve implementation. Three policy areas for research and analysis were addressed  – SMEs and Competitiveness, Tax Policy and Economic Growth and Social Security and Pension Reform.

In the field of SMEs and Competitiveness the CED’s objectives were to:

• analyze tendencies in the level of competitiveness of businesses on a national level and outline specifics of SME competitiveness as well as change in conditions for their growth;
• work with NGOs, branch associations and financing institutions to set up collaboration in solving the problems in the field of SME financing and
• develop basic outlines for sectoral guarantee fund together with branch associations and financial institutions.

In the Tax Policy area following the main goal to promote the ideas of fair taxation the CED participated actively in developing tax policy amendments to foster economic activities in the country through:

• Review of the current tax legislation and regulations and identification of new more effective tax policy instruments.
• Regular meetings of the tax policy task force comprising private and public sector experts.
• Data collection and analysis, and identification of specific problems.

In 2002 the CED also focused its activities on identifying the achievements and the problem areas associated with the pension reform in Bulgaria. Moreover, the CED supported the development of the supplementary pension insurance by establishing policy task force and working with target groups to review and analyze the current state and problems faced by the supplementary pension insurance system in the country and formulate and advocate policies for its successful development over the next years.

To increase public access to information and knowledge about the public policy development process was in the main focus of all CED activities. All discussions and surveys conducted under the DemNet Program were organized on www.ced.bg and www.econ.bg, and updated information was provided about all activities under the Partnership Agreement.

Magdalena Varshilova
Tel.:(+359 2) 953 4204 ext.220
E-mail: M.Varshilova@ced.bg