The first grant schemes under an operational programme for improving the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy until 2013 will be made public within the next couple of weeks, Economy and Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov said Friday.

Funding under these grant schemes will be available for innovative startups, for modernization of equipment and for introduction of international standards. The total amount of available funding is 40 million euro.

The operational programme for development of Bulgaria's economic competitiveness was signed in Brussels on September 27 by Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and EU Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Huebner.

The EU will make available to Bulgaria 988 million euro to implement this programme, with another 175 million coming in the form of national co-financing.

It is the first of seven operational programmes of Bulgaria that gets EU's approval. According to the Economy Minister and the head of the European Commission Sofia representation, Michael Humphreys, this speaks of its importance for the development of the national economy.

Peter Dimitrov cited a report by the Swiss-based International Institute of Management Development placing Bulgaria 41st among 55 European countries in terms of competitiveness this year. The country was 47th in 2006.

In terms of business efficiency - which is at the core of the competitiveness operational programme, Bulgaria is 54th.