National Export Portal

Национален експортен портал

Country	Bulgaria , applies nationwide
Time period	Temporary, 22 April 2010 – 31 December 2015
Context	Restructuring Support Instruments
Type	Legislations or other statutory regulations
Category	Reorientation of business activities – Change of production/Innovation
Author	Ekaterina Markova (IPS-Bas) and Eurofound
Measure added	23 June 2022 (updated 02 October 2024)

Background information

This measure is no longer active.

Development of a National Export Internet portal supporting Database of Bulgarian small and medium enterprises with export potential.

The national export portal is financed within the project "Promoting the internationalisation of Bulgarian enterprises" which is in force until 22 April 2014 under the Operational Programme "Competitiveness" and is worth BGN 27.396 million. BGN 14.212 million is to be used in the next 12 months.

Content of measure

The National Export Portal promotes the internationalisation of Bulgarian SMEs and offers the following services:

Analyses of export activities and development of integration strategies for 18 priority economic sectors, such as C10 - Manufacture of food products, C11 - Manufacture of beverages, C21 - Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations, C25 - Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, and others.
Research of potential opportunities for Bulgarian commodities in 32 international markets;
Information maintenance to remain up to date on individual strategies and opportunities;
Provision of relevant information;
Provision of business advice by experts within the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises.

It is a national initiative - supported, managed and organised by the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises at the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy.

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

21 March 2023

In recent years (2017-2020), information on the platform is being updated only occasionally and data may not be up-to-date.

Experts working in the Inno-grow project, which promotes entrepreneurship among young people, co-financed by the Interreg Europe programme, concluded that the design of the National Export Portal is outdated and can be further adapted to the needs of users and SMEs. The proposal is to analyse the usability of the portal and upgrade it to include export support for SMEs in rural areas and provision of special certification for exporting companies.

Use of measure

Data, provided by the Bulgarian SMEs Promotion Agency (BSMEPA), show that the portal was visited 176,915 times, with 111,172 unique IP addresses, between 2011 and 2014. Moreover, 808,260 pages were visited and the site has more than 6,000 registered users. The most regularly visited sections are those where the companies could search for international partners (9.7%) and the company catalogue (6.2%).

According to the BSMEPA annual report 2014, in 2014, 2,284 users made a new registration, 346,388 pages were visited, and 233 companies updated their registered profiles. The expert and consultant services that the portal provided in 2014 include 70 cases of market analyses and research, 22 expert consultations on request by registered companies, 39 requests by foreign companies searching for Bulgarian partners, as well as many publications and informative materials about various events for SMEs.

There is no available information about the usage of the portal after 2015.

According to the Bulgarian SME Promotion Agency, the portal assists the entry and successful positioning of Bulgarian enterprises in foreign markets by trying to improve their competitiveness. In 2010, 95% of Bulgarian companies had a low degree of internationalisation, while the remaining 5% could reach a medium level.

The portal provides specialised information and consultation to SMEs for export promotion. It acts as an intermediary in establishing contacts between Bulgarian SMEs and foreign companies, as well as in supply of goods and services. The portal maintains a database of corporate records of Bulgarian export oriented businesses.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	SMEs	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	European Funds National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

Unknown
Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

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