At Working Meeting in China the High Results Achieved on the Joint Project between the UNWE and HUEB Were Reported

The research team of the project Standardized Models for Recognition, Accounting and Disclosure of the Cultural Heritage of Bulgaria and China visited Hebei University of Economics and Business /HUEB/ in the period 26 October - 2 November 2025. The project is led by a scientific team of lecturers from the University of National and World Economy /UNWE/ in partnership with Hebei University of Economics and Business (HUEB).

The Head of the Bulgarian research team is Prof. Dr. Daniela Feschiyan, Head of the UNWE Accounting and Analysis Department /in the picture above/. Its members are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Chief Assist. Dr. Radka Andasarova, Scientific Secretary of the UNWE Accounting and Analysis Department, and Victoria Ivanova, student in the Master's degree programme in Accounting. The Chinese research team is led by Prof. Li Guijin, Vice President of HUEB.

The UNWE is the only Bulgarian university that has won funding for a research project in partnership with a Chinese university in the scientific field of Economics and Management, reminded the Bulgarian Project Head Prof. Dr. Daniela Feschiyan.

In conditions of fierce competition between more than 40 project proposals within the contest procedure organized by the Scientific Research Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, the only project successfully ranked in the scientific field of Economics and Management in 2024 was the project elaborated by the UNWE and HUEB entitled Standardized Models for the Recognition, Accounting, and Disclosure of the Cultural Heritage of Bulgaria and China.

The project has duration of two years and it is dedicated to building standardized models for recognition, reporting and disclosure of the cultural heritage of Bulgaria and China.

The working meeting was attended by the Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov and the President of HUEB Prof. Dr. Gao Bo.

Prof. Daniela Feschiyan, Head of the Bulgarian research team, presented the progress done in this internationally unexplored area of accounting.

In her presentation to the Chinese partners, she presented the scientific results achieved by the research team in highly indexed specialized publications and scientific forums and the most significant of them include:

• Raising the issue of the problems in the assessment and presentation of cultural heritage in the financial statements of public sector enterprises for the first time to the Bulgarian economic community in a plenary report on the Necessity to Apply a Sustainable, Conceptually Based, Standardized Model for Accounting for Cultural Heritage in the Public Sector of Bulgaria delivered at the International Scientific Conference on Accounting,  Digitalization, Sustainability – Science and Practice dedicated to the 105 Anniversary of the UNWE Accounting and Analysis Department. 
• Developing a two-component accounting model for accounting of tangible cultural heritage and empirical analysis of the effects of its application, presented as a result in a scientific study on the Standardized Model for Accounting of Heritage Assets in the Public Sector of Bulgaria published in the UNWE journal Economic Alternatives, indexed in Scopus.
• Presentation of a study dedicated to the survey of international accounting practice and existing scientific research on the problems of accounting for cultural heritage in the public sector delivered at an international scientific forum in front of scientists and researchers from 22 countries and 4 continents with forthcoming indexing in Web of Science.

The Head of the Bulgarian research team Prof. Dr. Daniela Feschiyan proposed an action plan in the second year of the research work, which was adopted unanimously. It includes research and comparative analyses of the existing accounting models for tangible cultural heritage in Bulgaria and China, which will be presented in joint scientific developments.

The Chinese research team and the participants in the workshop expressed their high positive assessment of the achievements of the Bulgarian research team. Prof. Shang Liwei, Director of the International Exchange Office, emphasized that the financial and accounting aspects of the activities of public sector enterprises, including the management of public assets, are of emphasized scientific and public importance, and added that he was impressed by the serious research work and the high results presented by Prof. Daniela Feschiyan.

Prof. Daniela Feschiyan – Head of the Bulgarian research team – emphasized that "with the implementation of the project, a new approach to accounting for cultural heritage will be created and tested, which will lay the foundations for a public discussion with the participation of national regulators, the academic community and professional organizations on these issues. The adoption of a new accounting model in the activities of the public sector enterprises – in Bulgaria and China, will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the accounting policies in the context of the use of cultural heritage for the benefit of society and will support the establishment of the UNWE and the University of Economics and Business in Hebei, China, as leading research centers on the issues of adaptation of accounting systems in public sector enterprises to the global accounting systems standards".

The Bulgarian research team together with the Chinese partners visited the History Museum in Hebei, where a fruitful Seminar on the problems of cultural heritage accounting was held.