site.btaMinistries of Transport, Regional Development Join Forces to Tackle Transport Sector Problems

The Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works will work together to solve the problems in the transport sector. The development of the sector is among the priorities in the management of Ministers Georgi Gvozdeikov and Andrey Tsekov, and the two have already held several meetings on the subject, the Transport Ministry said Friday. 

Early next week, Gvozdeikov and Tsekov will hold talks with representatives of the freight and bus sectors to discuss the top priority tasks they will work on together in the medium term. 

Gvozdeikov met with the transport community as soon as he took office. The representatives of the organisations stated that most of their problems require joint actions of several institutions. They expressed the opinion that due to the lack of good dialogue between the different departments, the problems were solved piecemeal and this did not lead to concrete results. The forthcoming meeting is in response to their request for joint action between institutions for a well-structured common policy.

At the meeting on June 16, the cargo and bus operators also highlighted the lack of drivers as a major problem facing the sector. They said the business needs 3,000 bus and truck drivers. The issue of shortening the time for obtaining work permits for drivers from outside the European Union was raised, as well as the creation of a targeted state policy for the training of personnel in Bulgaria.

On June 13, Gvozdeikov also met with representatives of the taxi industry and trade unions in the sector. They insisted that the level of waiver in the annual tax for taxi drivers, which was reduced for 2022, remain the same. In Sofia the reduction was from BGN 850 to BGN 300.