Women and economics – celebration of the International Women’s day in Sofia

Female entrepreneurs in Bulgaria In Bulgaria female entrepreneurs make up about 25-30% of the total number of entrepreneurs, despite statistics that portray Bulgarian women as often being highly capable entrepreneurs.

The Spanish ambassador and representative of the EU presidency Jorge Fuentes referred to the fact that closing this gap between what women can do and what they actually do has become an EU priority. It is only through promoting female participation in the working life on an equal footing with men, that the aim of the Lisbon strategy of Europe becoming the world’s leading knowledge economy can be reached.

This, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in co-operation with Innovation Norway and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has chosen to support through the conference Womenomics –female entrepreneurship.

The conference was a success with a good turn out and skilled speakers, who spoke on the subject of female entrepreneurship, shared personal experience from starting up a business and provided an analysis of the realities faced by Bulgarian women.

Deputy Minister Evgeny Angelov from the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism announced for instance a program aiming to increase the competitiveness of Bulgarian companies by making it easier for small and medium sized businesses to operate. These kinds of companies are typical for female entrepreneurs starting up their own business.

Two female entrepreneurs Katalina Zheliazkova og Fatima Myrseth. Photo: Torveig Dahl

Speed dating with Bulgarian and Norwegian enterprises For the occasion six female entrepreneurs came down from Norway to participate in a speed dating event with Bulgarian companies. This was facilitated by a matchmaking project financed by the bilateral co-operation program with Bulgaria (www.norwaygrants.no ).

The speed dating was an interesting undertaking, and by the end of the day several of the female entrepreneurs had exchanged contact information, and some even made plans for business meetings on the following day.

The embassy hopes that these collaborations turn out to be fruitful, and if nothing else contribute to increase the mutual understanding of Bulgarian and Norwegian culture.