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Over 250 faculty members and students attended the lecture "The main priorities of the Bulgarian government in the areas of economics and public finance," presented by Simeon Djankov, deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria, who talked about Bulgaria's position in the European Union (EU), the country's fiscal discipline, the adoption of European funds and the condition of the educational system. The event was organized by the AUBG Business Club on January 22 in the New Academic Building Auditorium.

"Since Simeon Djankov was elected minister of finance it has been a top priority for the Business Club to invite him to give a lecture for the AUBG students. We contacted him approximately three months before the presentation took place, during the fall semester of 2009," AUBG Business Club President Lachezar Stoynov said.

"We [Bulgarians] can only afford to be number one in what we do from now on, otherwise we have failed," Djankov said at the start of the lecture. Bulgaria has joined the European Union "a bit too early," he said. "They let us in before we were ready. There is that expectation that now that we are already European Union members, we are rapidly going to become richer [...] and that hasn't really happened. We are still competing with Romania for the poorest country in the EU, [...] so we are either worst or next to worst," Djankov added.

Bulgaria is in a "strange" position within the EU because it isn't economically benefitting from its membership, Djankov explained. "First we aren't yet a member of the Euro zone, and second [...] Bulgaria is the worst country in the EU in terms of using European funds," Djankov said.

"Personally, I like Simeon Djankov not only because he is very motivated but because he is not afraid to implement reforms considered by some to be too bold. In fact, I don't think Bulgaria ever had a minister that aggressive and devoted to his work," Stoynov said.

"What I most like about Djankov is that he has set in front of him ambitious goals and is highly determined to achieve them," Business Club Vice President Anton Borisov said.

Djankov also talked about reforms Bulgaria needs to face in the future in the areas of energy, healthcare and education. "I am fairly optimistic that within a few months we will be able to set up the type of health care system that will start operating from the beginning of 2011," Djankov said. "The rest of Europe will start noticing and saying ‘Bulgaria managed to do a reform that we haven't done for a long time,' and Bulgaria would become an example," Djankov added.

The finance minister talked about the European educational system, and the Bulgarian one in particular. According to the Shanghai index, among the top 500 academic institutions, 482 are situated in the United States and only 7 in Europe, Djankov added. He explained that the Bulgarian educational system is another system that has to rapidly change.

The link between teaching and research needs reform, Djankov said. "This combination between teaching and research gives an edge to the high education in the world. That doesn't exist in Europe in general. Bulgaria has this relatively strange system even by European standards where, in nearly all of the universities, professors are just paid to teach, and not to do research," Djankov added.

The minister concluded his presentation by explaining the plans of the government for the years to come. "We so far succeeded in being number one in Europe as in relation to the fiscal discipline," Djankov said. "The future goals are to become again number one in Europe for the next year but we need to be number one in many other fields as well. We need to do this very rapidly so that we can go to the European Union and say ‘see we were worst of the class and now we are the best in the class'," he added.

"The lecture of Minister Djankov was only the beginning of a very busy semester for the Business Club. We have many events planned for the following months, and I can only hope that the students of AUBG will be as enthusiastic as they were for Simeon Djankov's lecture," Stoynov said.

"I am pleased how well the meeting went. Djankov answered in details and he showed himself as an expert in the field of economics and finance," Iavor Botev, an AUBG junior and a Business Club member, said.

"I think that Mister Djankov introduced and spoke of himself and his work in an appealing, for the AUBG audience, way. He combined professional approach and rough sense of humor, resulting in a pleasurable and enriching presentation. I was glad I was there," Hristo Hristov, journalism and European studies major, said.

"The next big target for the Business Club will be the minister of economy, energy and tourism, Mr. Traicho Traikov. I hope that we will be able to organize his visit by April this year," Borisov said.

The next major event the Business Club is organizing is a presentation from Mrs. Kristina Krantcheva, founder and director of CM Consulting. The topic of the presentation will be business etiquette and will take place by the end of the month.