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04/23/2015
Corporate news, Country risk and economic studies

Third Country Risk Conference of Coface in Bulgaria: changes in energy sector and financial supervision will reduce risks

Third Country Risk Conference of Coface in Bulgaria: changes in energy sector and financial supervision will reduce risks
Economies in Europe are recoverring, but some risks remain. In Bulgaria a significant influence on the uncertainty for the business have energy sector and the financial supervision perspectives, which should undergo changes. These were clearly strated on the organized by Coface Third Conference on Risk Management which was held yesterday. This year the event was under the topic „Sector and regional risks – reaching financial confidence“ and was held with the sponsorship of DSK BANK  and AES Bulgaria. Media partners of the conference were television Bulgaria ON AIR, magazines Manager, Economy and Your business, newspaper Banker, online medias investor.bg, expert.bg, money.bg and the edition “Predpriemach” (Entrepreneur).

The event got together over 200 entrepreneurs, managers, financiers, risk analysts and representatives of state institutions, who discussed many topics related to energy, financial services, risks by sectors and countries, government regulation etc.

 

At the opening of the conference and during the following plenary lecture Milena Videnova, Country Manager of Coface Bulgaria and Grzegorz Sielevicz, Chief economist of the company for CEE region announced forecast data and risk assessments. According to the analysis for 2015 the Bulgarian economy will grow by around 1.4%, triggered by the household demand. The share of exports will reach 68%. Sielevicz take stock of risk countries, with particular noted that it is important to monitor the levels of bankruptcy for the big players in the world.

 

The first panel was dedicated to the decrease of the volatility in the energy sector. Daniel Berg, director of EBRD for Bulgaria draw attention to the need to reduce energy use and Olivier Marquette, CEO of AES Bulgaria, noted the importance of the stability of NEK, the diversity of the energy mix and the relations in the energy system. Konstantin Delislavkov, CEO of the Bulgarian federation of the industrial energy consumers, talked about actuaring of the risks in the sector, respectively, their overall review. This is how the stability will be assured. Slavcho Neykov, Chairman of the MB of Institute for energy management said that for the risk management in the sector the liberalization and the decision what will happen in the nuclear energy sector are important. Meglena Rusenova, Charwomen of the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association added the input of RES for decreasing the deficit in NEK is substantial.

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The panel on the financial supervision started with a special lecture of Martin Rauchenwald, Partner financial services in Oliver Wyman. He pointed out that the problem of non-performing loans is serious for banks and most importantly a prompt solution to this problem is under their management, which depends on the legislation in the country. Christofor Pavliv, chief economist of Unicredit Bulbank added that it is important the bank to act very carefully. Lyubomir Datsov talked about failure of financial market regulations introduced over the past 3-4 years in Europe and Biser Manolov and the member of the FSC Vladimir Savov added that this area in Europe needs internal changes and that without quick reforms nothing will happen. Jean-marie Demange, Head Regional Economic Service of France in Bulgaria outlined three problems in our country - effective banking supervision, inefficient management of banking crises and the need for collective responsibility at the BNB.

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The participant in the third panel generally agreed that there are no promising and unpromising sectors, but we must talk about good and bad managed sectors. It is therefore necessary to assess individual companies as well as sectorial risks which were presented by Milena Videnova in her plenary presentation. In his special participation counselors of the Minister of Economy Vladimir Karolev and Iliya Karanikolov noted that the role of the institution will henceforth be to improve the overall business climate and this can be monitored with objective measures - indices of competitiveness, openness of the market and others. Tsvetan Simeonov, Chairman of Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce stated 3 main challenges for the development of the sectors - administrative burdens, legislative mobility and financing difficulties.

 

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Margarita Petrova – Karidi Member of the MB and CEO of DSK BANK gave the point of view of the financial institutions – banks are ready to finance, thus take the risk, but entrepreneurs are the ones who must have a concept of development. Stefan Delahaye, Chairman of the MB of FBCC added that it is not necessary to overdo it with attention to the poorest regions, but instead to look for their competitive advantages. Peter Ganev from IME urged to stop talking about recovery and stimulate naturally created clusters. According to Ruslan Stefanov our country is moving in the right direction, although we are still far from the high levels of competitiveness.

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Coface Credit Risk conferences are important events, being held for the last 20 years in 20 countries all over the world, where Coface operates. These events are proved to be significant social and economic forums, where global issues are being discussed and long-term and efficient solutions are being suggested. The spheres and topics that are covered during the years at Coface Credit Risk conferences are permanently important – financial and economic crises and perspectives for growth, global economic trends and others. Among the speakers in these conferences were influential public figures such as Christine Lagarde, Erhard Busek, Pascal Lamy and others. In the last conference in Paris Jean-Claude Trichet was a keynote speaker.

Contact


Plamen Dimitrov

 
Plamen Dimitrov
Country Manager
Tel.: +359 2 821 37 71
E-mail: plamen.dimitrov@coface.com 
 
 
Todor Tsvetanov
Head of Marketing & Communications
Tel.: +359 882 481 411
E-mail: todor.tsvetanov@coface.com
 
 
76A, James Bourchier Blvd.,
Business center Hill Tower
1407 SOFIA
BULGARIA

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