The economic specialization – a factor for the international competitiveness of Bulgaria

• Published in: Ikonomicheska misŭl 2021-12, Vol.66 (6), p.116-118
• Main Author: Ivanova, Virjinia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0013-2993; 2815-3189
• DOI: 10.56497/etj2166608

The dynamics of trade flows has a strong impact on the development of Bulgaria's economic specialisation and is an important condition for strengthening its competitive position. Changes in international business, conditioned by the development of global value chains, define a new structure of industries and of export and import potential, and this leads to the conclusion of regional trade agreements that challenge national competitiveness. It is the great importance of these problems for the future foreign economic relations of our country and the ways of finding solutions that provoked the research interest of the authors of the recently published book "Bulgaria in International Economic Specialization" (see Panushev, Hristova-Balkanska, Hubenova-Delisivkova, Marinov, Stefanova, 2021). Carried out within the framework of the research programme of the Institute of Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the study presents the changes in theoretical concepts and models of international specialisation, Bulgaria's place in the structure of trade flows and approaches to assessing economic specialisation. The authors focus on regional economic structures and internationally defined patterns of specialization, which are the basis for national and firm strategy and policy building. The book explores the conceptual approaches of classical and contemporary theories of international trade and their interpretation in assessing changes in the world economy. It analyses the changes in Bulgaria's international specialisation, influenced by our inclusion in the common framework of the single European market, which intensifies competition between EU member states and leads to a restructuring of firms' activities. This also determines the changes in both intra-industry trade and trade with third countries. The authors point out that international specialisation based on international technological differences will create modern competitive advantages for Bulgaria and contribute to its inclusion in global value chains. The challenge for Bulgarian firms is partnership with European companies and "the distribution of productivity gains depending on and resulting from technological progress in Bulgarian production".