We are moving in the right direction as a destination for tourism and culture
Galya Zaharieva has been the mayor of Nova Zagora since July 2022. Born and raised in the city. She was four times an MP, deputy mayor of the Municipality of Nova Zagora and a teacher. Married, has a son and a daughter.
– Mrs. Zaharieva, it has already become a tradition at this time of the year, when the municipality of Nova Zagora celebrates its holiday, to talk with you about achievements, challenges and upcoming projects. What is the most important topic for the municipality now?
– Demographics, not only for our municipality, but in general. This is a key issue for the development of the regions.
We cannot make strategies for the development of the municipality, of the municipalities, without having the people for it. This is a national question that the local government raises repeatedly. And and we seek solutions through different policies.
It is not only about the detention of young people, which is the main priority, but about all kinds of measures that we implement through the budget policy of the municipality.
I will give a few examples: we have launched a program called “Health care on the spot”, aimed at every resident of the municipality who needs a medical examination or consultation where they live. We have very good health centers in small settlements, but there are no doctors and medical staff. I invited the doctors from the municipal hospital to volunteer for our free on-site examination program and fortunately they responded. We launched on a trial basis, it was already successful the program “Health care on site” is permanent.
On-site consultation dates for this month and next are posted on our website.
In addition, the municipality of Nova Zagora decided to support medical students and healthcare professionals with scholarships. The scholarships will be tied to a contract of employment in our municipal hospital. This is part of our large program for permanent attraction of new personnel for health care in our municipality. This month we start talks with the chancellors of medical universities about attracting students.
The quality of health care is directly related to the quality of life, to the retention and attraction of people. Through this year’s budget, we are implementing more key policies in the direction of demography.
Almost 85 percent of the budget for ongoing repairs is earmarked for the villages in our municipality. But we changed the order: first we fix the underground infrastructure, where possible, we permanently solve the problem with the water supply network (a very difficult topic, not only for Nova Zagora, but also for almost the whole country), and then we work on the street infrastructure.
The second strategic change is that we invest in advance in the creation of projects, which will allow us, when opening financing programs, not to waste time, but to submit documents. We already have approved projects and signed agreements under the state’s investment program, as well as 10 projects under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan.
50 percent of our capital program is aimed at small settlements.
For the city of Nova Zagora, we continue to change the infrastructure. Repair works are underway on “Elin Pelin” Street, “T. Mutevski”, “St. Voivoda, “April 20”, sections of “Gurko”, “Tsar Kaloyan”.
– How do you solve cases with securing investments and thereby jobs?
– For our agricultural region, the main focus is the farmers. I think we work very well with them and I want to thank them for every time they have responded and helped various public causes, including disasters and accidents, completely free of charge.
We concluded a memorandum of cooperation with the business zone in Stara Zagora, we have contacts with the economic zone in Plovdiv.
There is work, but staffing is the bigger problem. That is why we focus on schools where they actively work on programs for career guidance and development. Here, employers are on the move, who must convince and show parents that they don’t need to send their children far to have a good career and high income.
Joint initiatives with local Rotarians, territorial divisions of state institutions, social partners are also valuable to us – thank you for their attitude to public challenges!
My job as mayor is to ensure the necessary social environment, infrastructure, quality of educational and health services, development of culture and sports, so that Nova Zagora can be attractive place to live.
And as I said, every policy of ours is in this direction and we implement it based on our budgetary possibilities. Therefore, applying to all possible national and European programs is a priority.
– Do you continue to believe in civil initiatives as a fast track for the development of the municipality?
– Absolutely! And it is not a matter of faith, but of concrete work.
This year we launched the program to improve the living environment or as I call it “Green Home”. The idea came from our fellow citizens, who, with their own strength and means, began to ennoble spaces. You know we are very green city for each of our guests or tourists, but we, residents of New Zealand, want more in this direction. I managed to protect a total of BGN 20,000 as a budget under this program and we gave the opportunity to any informal civil association (neighbors of a certain block) who have enough enthusiasm to make their own project and implement it. Next year, I think we already have the experience to put more funds in the budget for more projects. It is a real tool through which every citizen can participate and change their municipality.
And he is far from the only one. We continue to work on the attraction of our fellow citizens who are successful individuals in various fields, to come back here and motivate the children and the parents as well. We do it continuously and especially actively on the days dedicated to the municipal holiday, when stars from the music, theater and literary scene are here. During the holidays, the calendar is full of exhibitions, performances, sports events, etc.
Our new teams from the tourist center, the colleagues from the cultural institutes of the municipality actively work also in the summer, when tourists from and to the sea choose to stay with us.
We are still at the beginning of this process here, but I think we are going in the right direction as a destination for tourism and culture. We’ve just welcomed 65 acts from across the country to our Old Town Song Festival.
– We are again in a pre-election situation, how does this affect the work in the municipalities?
– I won’t surprise anyone if I say that the lack of stability makes our work very difficult.
With colleagues from other municipalities, we are talking about projects of the future, about equal development of the regions, about quality of life in every settlement, about new investors, about personnel with high added value, about modern solutions for solving water crises, about infrastructure that to attract sustainable businesses and give ours a fresh start in global markets. At the same time, every day we face the impossibility, for example, of replacing water pipes due to delayed procedures, ambiguities regarding procedures for won national projects and their financing, clear decisions on tax policy, and others.
The lack of stability, of responsibility, of clear positions at the national level directly reflects on life in the municipalities and on each of us. This process must be stopped and I very much hope that the voters will have enough sense in the upcoming vote and that we will all make this possible.
– What is to come in the municipality of Nova Zagora?
– We are currently working on the policies and the philosophy of the new draft budget for next year. Our main focus continues to be aimed at overcoming demographic problems and creating sufficiently high-quality municipal services in every sphere.