Daniel Delchev, PhD student
University of National and World Economy
https://doi.org/10.53656/str2024-3s-12-inc
Abstract. The notion that regional competitiveness can be fostered and controlled to enhance national competitiveness has gained increasing acceptance in the scientific community in recent years. Based on this, several initiatives have been developed and implemented to enhance the company’s competitiveness in specific target regions of Europe and Bulgaria through targeted project financing. This article aims to investigate and evaluate the concept of the “white field” in the competitiveness literature, as well as the influence of project financing on businesses’ competitiveness. The competitiveness of nations is a major topic in many publications. For many years, the World Economic Forum and other international organizations have developed and published country rankings based on the competitiveness index. However, the focus is on the macroeconomic (national) competitiveness context. Over the course of the last two EU program periods (2007 – 2013 and 2014 – 2020), several projects amounting to over BGN 2 billion were approved for funding under the Competitiveness Operational Program. The program is part of the EU cohesion funds and involves partial national financing. Regrettably, there is a lack of social and economic studies regarding the effects of these programs. In summarizing the author’s argument, it can be claimed that project financing in Bulgaria in recent years has failed to establish the conditions necessary to enhance business and regional competitiveness. The following sections of the article’s structure will serve to validate the thesis: The theoretical foundations explain the characteristics of various levels of competitiveness; regional competitiveness is defined, and data on the competitiveness of the municipality of Kardzhali is presented; project financing and regional competitiveness are analyzed based on project financing data in the municipality of Kardzhali. The introduction sets the stage for a discussion of the key definitions related to competitiveness and its dimensions.
Keywords: regional competitiveness, project financing, regional development
