Bulgaria and Greece are to start a common agricultural advertising campaign, Bulgarian Agricultural Minister Miroslav Naydenov and his Greek counterpart Kostas Skandalidis revealed.
Bulgaria will advertise its meat products and vegetables, while Greece will attract attention to its olive oil. The campaign will take place as well in EU member states as in third countries.
"Romania may also be included in the common campaign," Minister Naydenov added.
Skandalidis and Naydenov decisively...
Towercom Bulgaria, which has been licensed to roll out a digital terrestrial TV network across the country, has selected Thomson Broadcast as a strategic partner, the two companies announced.
Thomson Broadcast is a brand of the French-headquartered electronics and media conglomerate Technicolor.
Towercom Bulgaria has a 15-year DTT licence and is currently building two SFN networks for national operation.
Thomson Broadcast is supplying Elite GreenPower medium and high power transmitters...
Bulgaria will introduce a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector as of the beginning of April next year under amendments that parliament adopted at second reading on Wednesday.
The legal changes were tabled to parliament by the center-right government, but drew the ire of the right-wing Blue Coalition and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which proposed alternative texts only to see them turned down by the majority.
The introduction of a flat VAT for the...
Bulgaria's government has decided to put up for sale a state-owned property in the German town of Bonn, saying it has gone out of use after the relocation of the embassy in Berlin.
At the moment Bulgaria houses its diplomatic bureau in Bonn, but the slot it owns there, spreading over 3099 square meters, is too large for it, the government said.
The starting sale price has been set at EUR 2.4 M.
Bulgaria's state-owned properties in Germany has often caused tensions to flare up. At the...
Bulgaria's center-right government has revived its plans to apply to join the bloc's exchange-rate mechanism, the so-called Eurozone waiting room, after it was forced to drop the euro bid in April this year over a larger than expected 2009 deficit.
"Bulgaria is likely to apply to join ERM II in the second half of 2011 after it has demonstrated that next year's budget deficit will fall below the European Union's ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product in line with the Maastricht criteria,"...
Bulgaria's cabinet has firm intentions to work on reopening traditional markets such as the Middle East, whose potential is now lost, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, says.
Mladenov spoke Tuesday, during the fifth annual business-government meeting in Bulgaria organized by Confederation of Employers and Industrialists and the Capital weekly newspaper, pointing out during the last year trade between Bulgaria and the Middle East went up 40%.
According to the Minister, three...
Russia has requested the maximum possible price for the Belene NPP project in Saturday's negotiations, revealed Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy Traicho Traikov Tuesday.
The price of Belene NPP had been set initially at EUR 4 B with possible escalation, but Saturday the Russian party had requested the maximum raise previewed, which makes the total price some BGN 6.3 B.
"We must change the metaphor for Belene NPP. You've got a car that can cost only EUR 4 B when painted white and...
German discount retailer Lidl announced it will open its first stores in Bulgaria on November 25 2010, a move that will heat up further the competition in the sector.
The shops will be located in 11 cities - Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik, Sliven, Kurdjali, Petrich, Montana, Lovech and Gabrovo.
At the beginning of the year German retailer Tengelmann decided to sell its discount retail chains in Romania and Bulgaria to its rival Lidl, which is part of Germany's Schwarz...
Bulgaria has the potential to become a sort of a "Silicon Valley" of the Black Sea, according to participants in a conference on outsourcing and off-shoring, organized by AmCham, the InvestBulgaria Agency, and Colliers International.
More than 300 international and local delegates attended the first "Realizing the Potential - Bulgaria on the Outsourcing and Off-shoring Map" conference in Sofia, an initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham) and the governmental...
Tishman International Companies and GE Real Estate have introduced new sustainability standards for commercial space in Bulgaria through their major Bulgarian project, Sofia Airport Center (SAC).
Tishman International and GE Real Estate presented Sofia Airport Center at the BalREc conference in Sofia dedicated to real estate and construction investments and sustainable development. Nikola Ignatov, "Properties Management" executive at Tishman International, presented SAC "green advantage" in...
Korean companies are preparing to invest in Bulgaria's energy sector, including in renewable energy, South Korea's Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho, said in a public lecture in Sofia.
His Excellency did not reveal details but said a large Korean company wanted to acquire a Bulgarian energy firm, which is to be privatized.
In addition, another company from South Korea has interest in taking part in the modernization of Bulgaria's electricity network.
At the same time, there is also...
The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov should not capitulate under Russian pressure, the Bulgarian rightist party DSB (Democrats for Strong Bulgaria) stated in a special declaration.
"We are deeply concerned over the ruling GERB party's retreat with regard to Russia's intention to carry out the Belene Nuclear Power Plant ant the South Stream gas pipeline project.," the declaration says.
According to DSB, the Bulgarian Prime Minister's recent retreat under Russian pressure is a sign of...
Bulgaria works hard to cover the Schengen Agreement criteria and join the zone March 2011, Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov stated.
Thus, he answered France's Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche who recently announced that France will make sure that the EU decision on the Bulgarian and Romanian entry in the Schengen Agreement is not made before the summer.
"The expansion of the Schengen Zone should not be an automatic result from the process of technical evaluation...
The outsourcing market in Bulgaria is currently estimated at EUR 100 M to EUR 150 M a year, but has the potential to go up over 10 times, according to Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov.
Traikov spoke Thursday during a conference titled "Bulgaria on the World Outsourcing and Offshore Map," at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Sofia. The event was organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Investment Agency and Colliers International, gathering over 300...
Sofia is the capital with the biggest drop of real estate prices in Central and Eastern Europe for 2009, according to analysis of the consultant company ERA Europe.
Compared to 2008, last year the real estate prices in Sofia dropped by 22%, putting the Bulgarian capital at the top of the list for the region.
According to the analysis, compared to the whole Europe, Sofia ranks third, left behind only by Dublin and Lisbon, which registered a 26% and 24% drop of real estate prices in...
The unemployment rate in Bulgaria has continued its gradual fall for an eighth consecutive month in October, reaching 8.9%, Labor Minister, Totyu Mladenov has announced.
In the same month, 334 671 was the total number of people registered in employment bureaus, Mladenov clarified. This indicates a drop by 4 300 in comparison to September.
According to the Labor Minister, the 2010 over-the-year unemployment rate will be 9.5%, which is approximately 2% lower than the initially expected...
The deal for the sale of several European water supply and treatment businesses from United Utilities, including Bulgaria's Sofijska Voda, to France's Veolia Environnement, has been finalized.
Veolia, the world's biggest listed water company, unveiled the deal, with an enterprise value of about EUR 199 M in June. United Utilities sale of non-regulated businesses included subsidiary United Utilities Australia and investments in the UK, the Philippines, Bulgaria and Poland.
The French...
Bulgaria's gross domestic product is expected to mark a slight increase in the third quarter this year, analysts say days before the statistics institute issues its flash estimate.
"Bulgaria's GDP growth will mark a 0.5% increase on an annual basis in the third quarter," Nikolay Vassilev, CEO and member of the Board of Expat Capital, told the business site investor.bg.
Vladimir Karolev, a managing partner at the Balkan Advisory Company, makes the same forecast, while according to...
Bulgaria remains one of Europe's biggest recipients of remittances in 2010, according to the latest "Migration and Remittances Factbook" by the World Bank.
Based on the country rankings shown in the report, remittances to Bulgaria are estimated to reach nearly USD 1.6 B for the entire 2010, staying more or less flat over the previous year, when migrants sent home remittances to the order of an estimated 5.3% of GDP .
Remittances from migrant workers are a lifeline to large sections of the...
Bulgaria's industrial output went up by 9.3% in September 2010 year-on-year, according to the latest data of the National Statistical Institute.
The growth in the extracting industry is 18%, while the processing industry grew by 13%; the production of electricity and gas is down by 3.6%.
Compared with August 2010, the growth of the Bulgarian industry in September 2010 is 1.6%, with the extracting industry growing by 3.1%, the processing industry – by 2.8%, and the production of...