Prof. Anna Nedyalkova, D.Sc.: The problem of weak financial culture is global
Financial education should be seen as a range of skills necessary to plan the present and the future, said the President of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar".
Financial education should be seen not only as a personal protection during a crisis, but as a range of skills needed to plan the present and the future, said the President of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar", Prof. Anna Nedyalkova. The reason for her statement is the forthcoming conference on "Financial education for a sustainable economy", which will be held on 11 May, 2015 in the Balkan hotel, Sofia. Organizers of the event are Bulgaria On Air Media Group, Bloomberg TV and Investor.bg. Prof. Anna Nedyalkova, who is among the speakers at the conference, said that she sees the need for financial education as "a global problem of growing topicality and importance." - "I emphasize that the problem is global because of the globalized financial system, the problem of poor financial literacy and competence affects all parts of the world and all people," she said.
Here is her comment on the forthcoming conference: During one of the biggest financial crises when humanity rapidly enteredthe orbit of the dictates of money, financial education has become a major factor for the rapid enrichment of some and the survival or collapse of others.
We witnessed unexpected irrational decisions by those who provide financial services and debt instruments, and by those seeking them as the only chance of keeping their standard of living. People had to realize this process and find a way to pass through it with less damage in physical and social aspect.
The severe damage from burst balloons lеd to the conclusion that finance is not the only skill to make money, but also it is the architecture of the economic order, architecture, defining the objectives of each person. It was here where the theoretical understanding of the nature and scope of financial education and its applied field are brought together in one point. It became clear that financial education should be seen not only as a personal protection during a crisis, but as a range of skills required to plan present and future, to ensure the success of entrepreneurial ideas and investment. Adding that the global media and communications eliminated the effect of time and distance, financial education becomes even more relevant because it prepares people for the 21st century financial inclusion on a global scale. Even greater respect deserves the choice of the initiators of the forum to link financial education to the sustainable economy.
This makes it possible for us to go out from the narrow construct of aimless estimates for the financial sector and the disturbing findings of the poor awareness of the population about the abundance of financial products with which we are flooded daily. Against the background of the crisis, in which we are still in, reality seems more like a struggle for survival, a fight to protect our jobs, for protection from the tsunami of inflation, currency wars, unpunished encroachment on nature.
You will say then – is it not a luxury to talk about a sustainable economy? My answer is no and we have to talk now, without delay, because a period of significant social and economic transformations follows every crisis.
And this time we hope that they could detach us from the model of total consumer society and lead us to the required reasonable consumption. Sustainable consumption and financial education are the two sides of the same coin - the sustainable economy.
I have no doubt that the forum will direct public attention to these and many other aspects of the relationship between financial education and sustainable economy. This will be a good foundation for further systematic and comprehensively organized work to identify the needs and to promote initiatives and policies in different fields - education, health, consumer protection and many others. Because social change often starts in small groups with timely supported best practices and their competent dissemination.