How Do We Use This Momentum to Build a Sustainable Country?

Momentum Is Not Growth – It Is Raw Energy

Momentum is like wind. It can fill the sails – or pass by without moving the ship.
If capital inflows are not properly directed, they risk:

• fueling speculation instead of productivity

• benefiting a few rather than society

• creating growth without stability

Sustainable development requires structure. And structure requires
political understanding of systems, not just isolated numbers.

Step One: Turn the Stock Market into a National Tool – Not an Elite Playground

In many countries, the stock market is perceived as something that belongs to:

• banks

• investors

• an economic elite

This is a fundamental mistake.

A healthy capital market should:

• provide local companies with access to growth capital

• offer ordinary citizens a way to save and invest

• function as a bridge between ideas and expansion

This requires political decisions that:

• simplify listing processes for small and medium-sized enterprises

• lower the barriers for broad public ownership

• encourage long-term savings rather than short-term trading

When people own a part of the future, their relationship with society changes.

Step Two: Connect Capital Markets with Education and Skills

Capital without competence leads to stagnation.
Competence without capital leads to emigration.

Bulgaria faces a well-known challenge: young, talented people leave the country.
Used correctly, a strong stock market can become part of the solution.

This requires:

• stronger links between universities, research, and industry

• incentives for companies to invest in local talent

• public support for innovation clusters, not just industrial zones

Capital should not only seek returns – it should build people.

Step Three: From Real Estate to Entrepreneurship

When capital flows into a country, it often goes where it is easiest:

• real estate

• short-term speculation

• import-driven consumption

This creates the illusion of growth, but few future-proof jobs.

A sustainable country instead channels capital toward:

• productive companies

• export-oriented businesses

• technology, services, and creative industries

Politics must dare to guide – not through micromanagement, but through smart incentives.

Step Four: Build Long-Term Trust – Not Short-Term Popularity

Capital is sensitive. It reacts not only to numbers but to:

• the strength of the rule of law

• transparency

• institutional stability

A stock market rally can quickly reverse if:

• regulations change unpredictably

• political conflicts block reforms

• corruption or nepotism undermines trust

This demands political leadership that understands one crucial fact:
trust takes years to build and moments to destroy.

Step Five: Treat Citizens as Stakeholders – Not Spectators

One of the greatest mistakes countries make is allowing economic development to
become something that happens “above people’s heads.”

When citizens do not feel that:

• their daily lives are improving

• their children have better opportunities

• their work is valued

distrust grows – even during periods of economic growth.

Sustainable development means:

• jobs that pay more than subsistence wages

• opportunities to save and build ownership

• real social mobility

A strong stock market without social anchoring is politically explosive.

Step Six: Learn from Others – Without Blind Imitation

Small European countries have walked this path before:

• some used capital markets to build strong export economies

• others allowed speculation to erode their social contract

The difference has almost always been governance, not markets.

Markets do their job.
Politics must set the framework.

The Big Question: Can BULGARIA Afford to Waste This Moment?

Bulgaria has missed several opportunities in the past:

• after EU accession

• during the first wave of globalization

• when low-cost labor was its main competitive advantage

Now the playing field is changing.
Work is becoming digital. Capital is mobile. Location is a choice.

A strong stock market signals that Bulgaria can be more than a low-cost country. But this requires a mental shift:

• from administration to vision

• from reactive politics to systems thinking

• from short-term gains to long-term societal value

Conclusion: Momentum Is a Responsibility

A rising stock market is not a trophy on the wall.
It is an open door.

Building a sustainable country requires political leadership that:

• understands the whole system

• dares to prioritize the long term

• recognizes that capital is a means, not an end

The question is not whether Bulgaria has momentum.
It does.

The question is:
Who will take responsibility for turning this moment into a future
that endures – economically, socially, and humanly?

Because history is clear:
Momentum that is not used – disappears.