In the past week, the prime minister's foreign policy has managed to simultaneously anger both the pro-European forces in Bulgaria and the Russophiles. Domestic political passions will pass, but something much more important has begun to crumble: the trust of international investors. This is what Kiril Petkov wrote on his Facebook profile.
And he asked: If you are a French investor, would you invest in Bulgaria after a week in which, on your national holiday, you hear the Bulgarian prime minister distancing himself from the European consensus, and one of President Macron's closest associates publicly expresses his disappointment with his words? If you are a German investor, would you invest in a country where the prime minister makes commitments to a large German investor, and the economy minister subsequently states that they cannot be fulfilled?
If you are a Polish investor and you are worried about Russian influence in Eastern Europe, would you choose Bulgaria when the government defines as a “national interest“ the removal of Russian oligarchs and individuals associated with Russian intelligence from the sanctions list? And if you are a financial investor from Europe, how would you assess a country that comes under European monitoring for excessive deficit due to a budget with a deficit of 5.7%?, Petkov continued.
According to him, the trust of international investors is built over years, but can be destroyed in days. '"International capital is not influenced by protocol statements, speeches full of general talk about how important investments are, or by handshakes in front of the cameras. He reads the signals. And when the signals are a variable foreign policy, a departure from the European consensus, failure to fulfill commitments, fiscal instability and the promotion of vague economic ideas such as a “state-determined fair price“, which in practice do not even lead to lower prices, this inevitably undermines trust and turns away investors", adds the former prime minister.
Without investments, there is no production, no new jobs, no tax revenues, no higher incomes and no sustainable economic growth. This was the real damage of the past week, Kiril Petkov pointed out.
And he added: "Bulgaria today has serious competitive advantages: membership in the eurozone, Schengen and some of the lowest taxes in Europe. To squander them because of the wrong understanding of the world of a government that defines itself as progressive, but in fact does not understand how global competition for investment works, would be a historic mistake.
If the government continues with this "high flying", Bulgaria risks losing its most valuable advantages. In today's world, capital does not wait for countries to improve and does not forgive inconsistency. It simply goes elsewhere, Petkov also writes.