Krasimir Dachev: If we change our thinking, we change reality

Krasimir Dachev is the Chairperson of the Management Board and an Executive Director of Metal Technology Group - Angel Balevski Holding AD and of Svilosa AD. He is the owner of several factories in the sphere of chemistry, metal casting and mineral exploration. Before 10th November 1989, he was the Chief Legal Advisor at the State Space Utilization Committee, member of the International Institute of Space Law and Head of the National Space Program.

Bulgaria is moving in the right direction and most employers increase production and salaries. Bulgarian entrepreneurs continue to invest, which shows that they have positive attitude towards the future. And the more things improve, the more annoyed we are by the stubbornness of the almighty bureaucracy. We can only oppose it by excluding the possibility of meeting face to face, instead of establishing bodies to control it.

Now is the time to reduce the clerks with 50-60%. The market will accept them in a new role. Otherwise, the day will come, when it will be difficult for the administration, but these people will have no way to go. Now, there is a need of workforce, and the Bulgarian employer got used to training people without skill, as long as they want to learn. The administration is resisting, but, hopefully, we will not miss the time to introduce the rule for silent consent.

An important question is how the legal system can work flawlessly. If this happens, many things will go to their places. However, for some, impunity is a convenience. In Helsinki, the capital of Finland, there is a notary public on duty. There are no misuses there. In Bulgaria, there are notary publics or bailiffs everywhere, but swindles are happening. Now, the judicial system does whatever it wants, the monopolies do whatever they want, and healthcare also does whatever it wants. Even if a little political will for a change appears, they will be the first to start crying out. They have no interest in changing the status quo, and find a way to deal with the people who dare to make reforms; and society behaves as if we had an infinite depository with cadres.

Lately, I have been thinking why our country is poor, and the scales are tilting in favour of the answer that we are poor, because we are not smart enough. In the US, the wellhead is located in the city park, and no one worries about it. If you go to Stuttgart, you think that you are seeing a sports hall, but it turns out to be a nuclear power plant. In Vienna, you see a beautiful building, which turns out to be a waste processing plant. And in Bulgaria, it is full of organizations of rambling individuals who do not stop racketeering for one thing or another. It is easy to play on the string of populism, when "simple people - burdensome, boring life”.

To me, there is a symbolic quote from Ayn Rand, who is a significant name for the 20th-century philosophy and literature: "Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours; when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice; you may know that your society is doomed."

Now, there are little foreign investments in Bulgaria, which shows that there is something wrong in the system. The dominant and uncontrollable action of monopolies do not stop here. We see several companies on the market, which started manipulating the electricity prices, and for a month, the petrol price jumped by 60%. In Bulgaria, this is happening right in the eyes of everyone, and the state is powerless.

If we play our cards well, people's welfare will continue to improve. We have more today, than we have ever dreamed of. Has anyone ever thought 20 years ago, that in Sofia, the number of cars will become equal to the number of people... However, productivity in Bulgaria is still low, we produce very little. But this is our, the entrepreneurs', fault. The “air” here is not for production. If one of our employees goes to Germany, their thinking changes immediately. If we change the way of thinking here, we will change the reality around us.