Bulgaria's finance minister, who was initially targeting rapid accession to the euro zone, has confirmed the country is in no hurry to adopt the single currency.
"We will not make any move toward the switchover in the next two years," Simeon Djankov told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
The statement is in line with the opinion of local analysts, who have tried to tone down the cabinet's enthusiasm for adopting rapidly the common European currency, saying it makes more sense for the...
Bulgaria has registered an increase in its foreign direct investment in January-May 2012 year-on-year, according to the latest data of the Bulgarian National Bank released on Monday.
According to the Bulgarian National Bank's preliminary data, the foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for January - May 2012 increased by EUR 473.8 M (1.2% of GDP), compared to an increase of EUR 72.2 million (0.2% of GDP) for January – May 2011.
Bulgaria's attracted Equity Capital (acquisition/disposal of...
Bulgaria's Currency Board Is Super Stable
(Sofia, Jan 12) - "The currency board functioning in Bulgaria is super-stable," the monthly analysis of Raiffeissen Bank Bulgaria reads.
The experts have calculated that at the end of November 2012 the currency board's reserves amount to 15.1 billion euro, which is an increase by 2.2 million euro from a month ago.
The board's reserves have increased by 1.9 billion euro (14.4%) year-on-year, which is a surplus of about 89% to the minimum...
Wall Street legend and highly successful international investor, author and commodities expert, Jim Rogers has said he is considering investing in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is among the few countries, in which he is considering investing right now, since they have made the most improvement since his latest trip around the world, the billionaire, currently based in Singapore, said in an interview for Gold Radio Cafй.
He joined the broadcast for a brief discussion on his new book "Street Smarts:...
Italian companies may be attracted in privatization projects, including for tourist sites, as well as concessions agreements and modernization schemes for airports, and construction and reconstruction of road and railway infrastructure in Bulgaria, according to Minister Bozhidar Lukarski.
Speaking Tuesday at the opening of an economic forum titled “Bulgaria and Italy: Together for Achieving Growth”, Lukarski pointed out that the trade and economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Italy...
“The opportunities OP Environment provides in the previous and the new programme periods establish prerequisites for a huge volume of work on designing and construction of ecological infrastructure as well as possibilities for the state to tackle challenges,“ said Ivelina Vasileva, Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water, speaking at an annual conference themed “Strategic infrastructure and investments – Bulgaria and the Western Balkans“, FOCUS News Agency reported.
“In the...
Morocco and Bulgaria signed an agreement aimed at strengthening bilateral industrial cooperation at the institutional level and in terms of research and innovation Monday.
According to this agreement, the two countries will encourage industrial cooperation initiatives by promoting cooperation between productive sectors. They also undertake to promote joint projects in the area of innovation, industrial research and transfer of technology.
On Monday, Bulgaria's Parliamentary Speaker...
The European Association of Public Banks has elected as its Vice President the CEO of the Bulgarian Development Bank, Sasho Chakalski.
Chakalski got elected to the top management of one of the most prestigious European banking organizations on Tuesday in Brussels during a general assembly meeting of the EAPB.
His bid was supported unanimously by the 35 members of the administrative council of the EAPB.
Thus, Chakalski will be in charge of EAPB's relations with the EU regulatory bodies...
The privatization tender, through which the state will seek to boost public revenues by some BGN 80 M, will take place 14-27 December, the Sofia stock exchange announced.
The government will offer for privatization through the Sofia stock exchange a package of small state companies or stakes in such firms as part of its efforts to rake in revenues.
This will be the first attempt at privatization for the center-right government of Boyko Borisov since the beginning of its term last...
Bulgaria's Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov and China's Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun have signed a memorandum for bilateral cooperation in railway transport.
The document was signed Tuesday in the presence of Zhang Dejiang, Vice-Premier of the People's Republic of China, right before the opening of the 7th World Congress on High Speed Rail.
The memorandum defines the spheres of cooperation, which include the transit through Bulgaria on Eurasian transport corridors, modernization...
Bulgaria's Interior Ministry has urged all drivers to use the Ilinden-Exochi crossing when traveling to and from Greece after the rising Struma River damaged the E-79, the main road connecting the two countries.
The torrential rains in Southwest Bulgaria over the weekend led the Struma River to rise by five meters in the Kresna Gorge, some 120 km south of Sofia, causing a landslide that undermined the road, which collapsed into the river; a truck with its driver bringing gravel for the...
The construction of the Struma Highway will solve the problem with floods along the Struma River in Southwest Bulgaria, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.
Commenting on the floods caused over the weekend by the rising of the Struma River, which springs from the Vitosha Mountain near Sofia and flows through Southwest Bulgaria and Northern Greece into the Aegean Sea, Borisov declared the resolve of his Cabinet to reinvigorate the efforts to construct the Struma Highway, at the same time...
One of the largest Bulgarian pharmaceutical companies, Sopharma, has announced a massive investment into a new production plant.
On December 9, 2010, the company will break the ground for its new factory, in which it will invest BGN 70 M.
The new facility will be producing up to 4 billion pills per year of over 100 different types of medicines, and will employ 420 people once it is completed.
The CEO of Sopharma Ognyan Donev will break the ground for the construction together with...
Sofia Airport, the largest of Bulgaria's four international airports, expects to end 2010 with a net profit of BGN 14 M, according to its Operations Director Nikolay Kabakchiev.
The number of passengers that the airport served in 2010 is expected to be 6% larger than in 2009, Kabakchiev told BTA in an interview.
He has pointed out that in November 2010, Sofia Airport introduced its first four online check-in terminals.
The airport will move to make all payments for parking services at...
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has provided a credit line of EUR 150 M to the United Bulgarian Bank, a subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece.
The credit line is intended to boost crediting for the business sector; the Romanian and Serbian subsidiaries of the National Bank of Greece – Banca Romaneasca and Vojvodjanska Banka. Each of them is getting a credit line of EUR 100 M from the EBRD.
"The support for the banks and the real economy in Bulgaria, Romania, and...
The airport of Bulgaria's capital Sofia has serviced 6% more passengers in 2010, compared to the previous year, according to the airport Director, Nikolay Kabakchiev.
The number of serviced airplanes in 2010 has reached 47 000 – up 3% compared to 2009. 3 324 000 passengers have used the airport this year.
Kabakchiev further explained the airport management is applying all possible legal measures to solve the problem with taxi cabs whose drivers cheat customers by charging them too much...
The EBRD and UniCredit Bulbank announced they will support a modernisation programme and energy efficiency improvements at Bulgaria's Chelopech mine, the largest gold deposit in Europe that is still in production.
The two institutions are providing a loan of USD 66.75 M to the mine operator Chelopech Mining EAD, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada's Dundee Precious Metals Inc. Chelopech Mining produces copper-gold-silver concentrate at its mining facilities located approximately 70...
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of three Bulgarian nationals, who brought a case against Bulgaria, claiming to be successors to shareholders of a brewery in Plovdiv, which was nationalized in 1947.
After eighteen years of court battles, the heirs to shareholders in Bulgaria's earliest commercial brewery "Kamenitza - Frick and Sulzer" enjoy every chance to obtain shares in Kamenitza AD since the Strasbourg court ruling allows them to go to law over the number of shares...
Several new fact sheets are available on Invest Bulgaria site, comprising information about:
Industrial Zones in Bulgaria
Taxation
Franchising Market in Bulgaria
Residential Market in Bulgaria
Reregistering a company
Sofia Business Buildings
read more at:...
Not a single one of the dozens of doomsday scenarios forecast for Bulgaria's economy and state finances by foreign and Bulgarian observers has materialized, central bank head Ivan Iskrov has declared.
Iskrov, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, presented during a seminar in Sofia Friday a ranking of the top 30 bad forecasts for Bulgaria's financial stability that failed materialize in spite of what he described as slander in international media.
"Professional "traders of fear" have...
A delegation from Bulgaria's Northwest, the poorest EU region, has participated in a specially designed investment forum in Bergen, Norway.
The delegation of representatives of local authorities from the "Severozapaden" Region in Bulgaria, including the District Governor of Vidin Plamen Stefanov, and the mayors of the town of Belogradchik and several villages, has met with the Bergen Mayor Gunnar Bakke.
It also took part in an investment forum in Bergen entitled "Bulgaria – New Region...
Borovets, one of the top Bulgarian ski resorts, has announced its prices for the 2010-11 winter season, which have not been raised from last year.
The season in Bulgaria's oldes winter resort will be opened Saturday December 18, when special 50% discounts will be valid.
All-season subscription have even been reduced by 40%, according to Borosport, that manages Borovets facilities. The subscription for adults is EUR 450 (BGN 900), while that for kids is EUR 325.
The one-day card for all...
Bulgaria will very soon sign an agreement with Turkey and China on the construction of a high-speed railway, which will utilize the transport of Chinese goods to the EU.
This was announced by Bulgaria's Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov on the Bulgarian National Television Friday. He explained that the freight trains will have a maximum speed of 250 km/h.
"We will sign a trilateral agreement with Turkey and China, according to which the cargo will pass through the future Bosforus...
One of Bulgaria's two major Black Sea ports, Port Burgas, expects to end 2010 with a profit of BGN 2 M.
This would mean an increase of profit by 203% compared with 2009, the port management announced as cited by the Dnevnik daily.
Most of the cargo shipments going through Port Burgas consist of grain, raw materials, scarp, lumber, and equipment and parts of renewable energy plants.
In the recent months, the port started to process again liquid shipments of chemical substances after the...
The Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (CPC) has given the green light to the acquisition of leading Bulgarian internet service providers, Megalan Network and Spectrum Net, by M-Tel, the first and biggest mobile operator in the country.
The price of the deal, which was announced in the middle of September, is about EUR 70 M.
M-Tel, which is part of Telecom Austria Group, will acquire 100% of the two Internet providers. However, both companies will continue to work independently...
Turkiye Is Bankasi AS, the largest private bank in Turkey, intends to open a branch in Sofia through its subsidiary based in Germany, Isbank GmbH.
This has become clear from a report of the Bulgarian National Bank cited by the Dnevnik Daily, which says that after a notification by the German Financial Supervision Service, Isbank GmbH has started preparations for entering the Bulgarian market.
By using the EU passport of its German subsidiary, the Turkish bank will avoid the procedures...
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