Employment and Structural Development Company - Madan
by Valentin Gadjev,
Mayor of Madan Municipality
An unusual form of employment which is being experimented in the municipalities of Madan and Roudozem are the companies for employment, qualification and structural development. They will hire a certain number of the unemployed laid off from the restructuring industries and will also support the employers and the local authorities in the process of restructuring and preparing the state and municipal enterprises for privatization.
The purpose of those companies is to provide a temporary and alternative employment (up to 24 months) to unemployed directed by the Employment offices with a view to make them competitive at the labor force market.
Our company is the first in Bulgaria which was set-up with the support of German specialists and has a specific scope of activities. In fact, this new social form represents an intermediate stage in the process of privatization and restructuring of the economy in the Madan region.
The scope of activities is related to the development of the economy and the infrastructure, supporting villages, organizing of training and qualification courses which are aimed at the development of small and medium enterprises.
The employment and structural development company was registered after five months of preparation work from June 1996 and is the first company of this kind in Eastern Europe. Till September jointly with a group of German experts the necessary documents were filled in, the sites were visited and meetings were held in the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, with the founders of the company and representatives of other enterprises with a view to speed up the adoption of the Council of Ministers decision. The Council of Ministers decision for approving and target funding the programs was adopted on September 26, 1996.
In December 1996 instructions for its implementation were prepared and in the second half of December the documents relating to the company s establishment and activities were submitted to the MLW. Over the period September -October the company performed its activities according to the quota under the Temporary Employment Decree.
The program for creating jobs for unemployed from Madan municipality was approved with Decision No. 1095 of Council of Ministers as of September 26, 1996.
On the grounds of Decision No. 794 of Smolian district court a Company for employment and structural development Madan Ltd, set-up by partners Gorubso Ltd, Minstroy-Rodopi Ltd and Madan Municipality was entered in the Register for trade companies.
We have been granted so far by the German side an office equipment and office supplies free of charge and working and special clothes are to be delivered in the near future. The first mobile Professional and Information Center in the country is going to be set-up in December jointly with our German colleagues. The equipment delivered by the German side included computers, a TV set, video equipment, an overhead projector and furniture totaling 170,000 DM.
Our efforts aim at further improvement of the results of our joint work.