Chapter 2: Bulgaria

(continued)

2.6 Information and Training Needs

Survey respondents were asked to rate the type of information significant to their business development. Sixty-eight said updated information on environmental regulations was very important for their business development. Surprisingly, 63 percent indicated that information on in-country environmental problems was very important. More than half of survey respondents also considered very important information on sources of project financing and on domestic tenders for projects. Other important subjects included information on where to find domestic partners and on environmental quality standards for industries. The results of the rankings are shown in Table 2.21.

TABLE 2.21: IMPORTANCE OF SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Environmental Information	Rating

Domestic environmental regulations	3.5 (68)
Domestic environmental problems	3.4 (63)
Sources of project financing	3.3 (57)
Information on where to find domestic partners	3.3 (49)
Environmental quality standards for industries (e.g. ISO 14000, EMAS)	3.3 (47)
Eco-efficient and cleaner production practices	3.3 (42)
Domestic tenders for projects	3.2 (55)
New environmental technologies	3.2 (49)
EU environmental regulations	3.0 (43)
Certification requirements for environmental professionals	3.0 (35)
Information on finding international partners	3.0 (38)
International environmental problems	3.0 (25)
Announcements of domestic conferences or trade fairs	2.9 (27)
Contact information to government agencies	2.8 (30)
Announcements of international conferences or trade fairs	2.7 (28)
International tenders for projects	2.6 (25)
Note: The following scale was used for the rating: 4 Ð very important, 3 Ð important, 2 Ð somewhat important, 1 Ð not important. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents who rated the information as very important.

Respondents were also asked to rank the best delivery options for receiving this requested information. The results are presented in Table 2.22. Conferences and a regular newsletter with updated information were seen by almost half of the respondents as very useful delivery options. One out of three respondents considered very useful each of the following delivery options: information research service providing specific information, partnering workshops designed to introduce participants to partners from various institutions and an environmental business directory that includes specific market information. Table 2.22 also shows the percentage of respondents who would be willing to pay for such services.

TABLE 2.22: USEFULNESS OF SELECTED INFORMATION DELIVERY OPTIONS
Delivery option	Rating	% of Respondents Willing to Pay

Conferences arranged to address specific environmental problems	3.2 (48)	47
Regular newsletter	3.2 (48)	51
Information research service providing specific information	3.0 (44)	67
Partnering workshops designed to introduce participants to Western partners, government environmental officials and NGO	3.0 (36)	37
Environmental Business Directory (book)	2.8 (36)	46
Local business coordinator to arrange meetings, contacts and workshops	2.7 (29)	24
Computer database of information resources available on Internet	2.5 (27)	33
Environmental Business Directory (CD diskette)	2.2 (19)	48
Broadcast fax service	2.1 (10)	14
Note: The following scale was used for the rating: 4 - very useful; 3 - useful; 2 - somewhat useful; 1 - not useful. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents which find delivery option very useful.

Regarding topics for advanced professional training, the subjects most interesting to Bulgarian environmental professionals were environmental regulations and policy, environmental management and financing environmental investments. The need for training on environmental impact assessment and project management was also mentioned by one third of the respondents as very important. Interest in various training topics is presented in Table 2.23.

TABLE 2.23: INTEREST IN PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Type of Training	Rating

Environmental regulation and policy	3.2 (45)
Environmental management	3.0 (41)
Financing environmental investments	2.9 (39)
Environmental impact assessment	2.8 (32)
Project management	2.7 (35)
Environmental economics	2.7 (32)
Strategic planning	2.6 (30)
Environmental risk assessment	2.6 (27)
Environmental auditing	2.6 (24)
Environmental systems and their sustainability	2.5 (21)
Integrated solid waste management	2.3 (18)
Hazardous waste site ranking	2.3 (18)
GIS (Geographic Information Systems)	2.1 (16)
Note: The following scale was used in the rating: 4 - very interested; 3 - interested; 2 - somewhat interested; 1 - not interested. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents who are very interested in a particular training.

REC * PUBLICATIONS * EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET 2 * BULGARIA