site.btaLabour Minister Gutsanov: Investment in Skills Key for High-Tech Future

Investing in people's knowledge and skills is essential for achieving high technology, Minister of Labour and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov said at the Green Transition Forum 5.0: Competitiveness and Innovation in Central and Eastern European Countries on Monday. Gutsanov took part in a panel discussion on economic growth roadmaps and sustainable, inclusive progress for Europe.

Gutsanov noted that recent statistics show that in Bulgaria there are many young people who are neither studying nor working. He explained that it is crucial for education and lifelong training to be fully coordinated with the real economy and business sector in order to better match the skills of the workforce with labour market needs. Gutsanov said the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is investing significant resources—just over BGN 1 billion—through the Human Resources Development Programme and the Recovery and Resilience Plan to address these issues.

He described the forum as a collective platform that also holds influence in European institutions. “We are living in a world of tectonic changes, and naturally the trends we see globally are affecting our labour market as well,” Gutsanov said. He added that Europe has always been a main factor in the world’s economy and politics, underscoring the importance of setting long-term policies for Bulgaria’s economic progress. According to Gutsanov, the country should move towards having a state budget planned not just for a single year but for at least the next 15 years to enable more sustainable development.

More than 3,500 participants from over 30 countries are attending the five-day Green Transition Forum 5.0 at Sofia Event Centre, which runs until June 20. The forum gathers EU commissioners, ministers, MEPs, Nobel Prize laureates and top executives from global companies to discuss a range of topics including energy security, sustainable finance, digitalization, and innovation in the CEE region. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, and Professor Daron Acemoglu—2024 Nobel laureate in Economics—are among the keynote speakers.