Vasko Raichev, Deloitte & Touche Central Europe risk management partner and chairman of Deloitte & Touche Bulgaria and Macedonia. He has considerable experience in auditing big enterprises, insurance organizations, banks, transport enterprises. Speaks Bulgarian English, Russian.
Vasko Raichev answered questions of novinite.com
Q: As a long-time Managing Partner of Deloitte & Touche Bulgaria, what is your opinion of Bulgarian business climate?
A: I believe a tremendous progress has been achieved for the last 6 years in improvement of the business climate in Bulgaria. Just remember 1995 -1996: all key industries were still state owned, to run a more or less stable business you should have had friends with the government, nobody trusted Bulgarian Lev which was losing power every day, the banking sector was insolvent, most of the legislation was either inadequate or non-existent.
Now we have much, much better environment for doing business in Bulgaria - stable Lev, easy access to bank borrowings, European legislation adopted in many areas, much healthier infrastructure and the most important - the business is significantly less dependent on the government. Even the tax burden is not as big as it was before. Of course there are many other things to be done - the effectiveness of the court system is very low, for example. You cannot vindicate your business interests in a court environment where it takes 3 to 5 years for a simple lawsuit to be resolved.
Q: What were the most important advices you have given to foreign investors in Bulgaria over the years?
A: To be cautious and to build reserves in their business plans. The cost of doing business in Bulgaria is still bigger than one can expect for an emerging market and in a country with a huge need for investments.
One of the reasons is the so-called "gray economy", which is estimated to be 1/3 of the total economy. If you have such a big portion of an economy not paying taxes and not taking care of their people, the rest of the enterprises, the better ones, are required to pay more to cover the cost of public sector and social affairs. Hidden taxes and other bad surprises are everywhere. This is not fair and I believe this should be one of the priorities of our Government in going forward.
However, the other advice we were giving to our clients was to be patient and persistent in achieving their goals as they are very important for the country and their voice should be heard.
Q: How did your firm change its approach in working on the Bulgarian market over the last ten years?
A: No, we did not change our approach. From the very beginning we applied our worldwide approach, which is dedicated to quality and value of the services we provide. It was not easy, especially in the early years, to insist professional independency in an environment where people have a tendency to think that "the one who pays the bill is the one who orders the music". I believe we were successful simply because we never compromised our firm world standards in our work. But we were retaining our clients even in bad years, because we built mutual commitment to the quality and professionalism.
Q: If you had to start Deloitte & Touche Bulgaria once again, what are the things that you would do differently?
A: Not many things. I would probably establish some of the service lines earlier and would invest more in those services, which I now know Bulgaria needed. These are Information Strategy and Technologies and Information System Implementation, Forensics, Training in International Accounting Standards, Bookkeeping and Payroll, etc. In managing the business, I would not be as demanding to my people as sometimes I think I was, just because they proved they were good enough for the job. In personal life I would try to go home earlier in the evenings after the busy day...
Q: You are a part of a very special club - that of Bulgarians who hold responsible positions in multinational companies. How will your business attitude change?
A: I am very proud of being elected by my partners to take an important role in our firm in Central Europe. However, I already have experience in working in a multinational firm and this is Deloitte & Touche. I am a founding partner of Deloitte & Touche Central Europe and I served as a member of its Board of Directors for 4 years. I am also a founding partner of our global firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and had the honor to sign the Global Partnership Agreement in 2000 in New York.
But, you are right, now I move to a full time jib with our firm in Central Europe. I think I should not change anything in my approaches to the job. Regional management position was offered to me because my qualities and skills as developed with our firm while I was in Bulgaria. I just believe I should dedicate my time and energy to do my best on my new job. However, I will remain located in Sofia and I will continue to maintain some business relationship in Bulgaria, as well.
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