Economies are recovering, the business risks remain present

“Company stability in situation of political uncertainty” was the topic of the Second Country Risk Conference (CRC) in Bulgaria, Sofia, hotel Sheraton. This year's event was even more successful than the previous year. About 180 managers, financial directors, underwriters and representatives of governmental institutions discussed a wide range of topics - from the impact of political developments on the business to the role of innovations for delivering growth.

The participants were able to hear and discuss how the political and economic environments are developing both in Bulgaria and the CER region. During the opening of the CRC, Milena Videnova, Country Manager of Coface in Bulgaria stated: “Although there are signs of improvement of the business environment in Europe, the trade credit risks remain substantial, especially in case of commercial transactions with companies from South European Countries. Andrea Casini, Chief Operating Officer of Unicredit Bulbank AD, added “That the slow recovery of the economy continues to be a challenge”. Grzegorz Sielewicz, Chief Economist of Coface for the Central Europe Region, made an exclusively interesting and useful country risk overview starting with the advanced global economies and concluding with the current situation in Bulgaria.

 One of the main conclusions from the presentations and the panel discussions is that despite the obvious signs of recovery the environment in Bulgaria and on a global level is still uncertain. This fact continues setting the need of credit risk management in the center of attention and activity of the companies. The deputy Minister of economy and energy Krasin Dimitrov – one of the speakers in the second panel - underlined the need of reindustrialization and export of products with high added value. The third panel was dedicated to the innovations and competitiveness. The panelists indicated and discussed the crucial role of innovations in the IT sector and Services and also concluded that, In fact, innovations are not driven mainly by technology but by the understanding of consumer behavior.