Major international transport companies have declared interest in the concessions of Sofia International Airport announced by the Bulgarian government on April 6, the Transport Ministry said.
The largest Bulgarian airport will most likely be in private hands at the beginning of 2012, according to the Transport Ministry, as cited by the bTV channel.
The Ministry is set to work out the conditions for the concession tender within the next 3-4 months, and the tender itself will be announced...
The Sofia cigarette factory of Bulgaria's still state-owned tobacco giant Bulgartabac has registered a substantial growth in exports.
Sofia BT's export grew by 38.2% in the first quarter of 2011 year-on-year, according to the financial data of the company published on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
In the first three months of 2011, the total amount of cigarettes the country sold in Bulgaria and abroad grew by 58% y/y to reach 1.94 billion pieces. The share of the exported produce declined...
TransGlobal Assets, an Oregon-based company, has announced plans to acquire a Bulgarian Black Sea resort development, an investment estimated at USD 400 M once completed.
TransGlobal Assets, Inc. has signed a letter of intent and has received the project plans for the acquisition and development of the White Lagoon Resort project located in Topola Village near Kavarna, Bulgaria on the Black Sea coastline.
The White Lagoon project is anticipated to be valued at more than USD 400 M USD when...
The market price index of Bulgaria's dwellings for the first quarter of 2011year on year was 94.4%, i.e. the average decrease of the market prices of the dwellings was 5.6%, according to the country's National Statistical Institute.
The market price index of the Bulgarian dwellings for the first quarter of 2011 compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 was 97.7%, i.e. the average decrease of the market prices of the dwellings was 2.3%.
In the first quarter of 2011 compared to the previous...
Bulgaria's Cabinet intends to take measures to encourage foreign direct investment in the northwestern part of the country, the Severozapaden region, which is the poorest EU region.
Finance Minister Simoen Djankov will propose that the state lower the criteria for receiving a "Class A" investor status for companies in investing in Northwestern Bulgaria, MP from ruling party GERB Nikolay Kotsev announced on TV7.
Class A investor status is awarded by the Bulgarian state to large-scale...
Bulgaria's Parliament has adopted a controversial draft of the long-anticipated Renewable Energy Act that seems to be designed to reign in the staggering growth of solar and wind energy projects.
Until now, the state was obliged to purchase electricity produced from renewable energy generators at high, fixed prices, which has led to a jump in declared investments totaling over 6 000 – a capacity surpassing that of the national grid.
According to the new law, long-termed fixed prices of...
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry made BGN 2.259 M in 2010 from the much celebrated concessions of mineral water sources around the country.
The modest 2010 revenues came from the 26 concessions of a total of 40 mineral water springs amidst public debate on the use of Bulgaria's substantial mineral water resources.
Various experts and state and municipal officials have been pointing to their untapped potential as a source of wealth for many poor Bulgarian municipalities.
In April 2010,...
Nickelodeon will launch a localised block in Bulgaria next Monday, Broadband TV news reported.
It will be carried for four hours daily – two hours of preschool animation in the morning and two hours of animation and live action in the afternoon – on TV7's cable, satellite and FTA terrestrial analogue platforms including TV7 and Super 7.
It will also be available as part of the TV7 IPTV service.
The deal, which was brokered on behalf of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) by...
Bulgaria faces being taken to arbitration by the Russian contractor Rosatom over the nuclear plant project in Belene as it is likely to miss the July 1 deadline for signing a final agreement for its construction.
Bulgaria has committed to sign an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for building a nuclear power plant at Belene, Russian Komersant newspaper reported, citing representatives of state-owned Rosatom Corp.
If the contract is not signed by July 1, Bulgaria...
Bulgaria and Romania, where the crisis hit later than elsewhere, are set to see the biggest improvements in growth in 2011 and 2012 among European Union newcomers, according to a World Bank report.
Two and a half years after the global financial crisis broke, the economic activity in the EU10 rebounded in parallel with the EU15, according to the World Bank's new EU10 Regular Economic Report.
Growth strengthened in the second half of 2010, supported by restocking, a double-digit expansion...
Bulgarian IT companies and research and development organizations attracted a total of EUR 4 M in EU funding for IT projects in 2010, Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport and ITC announced.
While the sum is not impressive in absolute terms, it is double the EU money won by the Bulgarian IT sector in 2009, the ministry data shows.
Thus, Bulgarian scientific institutes and private IT companies got a total of EUR 3.2 M for projects under the Seventh Framework Program, with additional EUR 651 530...
Some seven or eight new foreign companies have declared interest in starting outsourcing and offshoring operations in Bulgaria, according to Borislav Stefanov, head of the InvestBulgaria Agency.
Speaking at a conference on outsourcing in Sofia Wednesday, Stefanov cited data from a survey carried out by the McKinsey consultancy, which showed that in the past two years the number of people employed in the outsourcing sector in Central and Eastern Europe grew from 220 000 to 250...
The Bulgarian company "Kabinata" ("The Cabin") owner of the Kabinata.com website, has been selected as one of infoDev's top 50 innovative, technology-led small to medium enterprises.
The educational website has developed its own technology called the "Virtual Classroom". It facilitates teaching, sharing audio – and visual information and presentations.
"Thanks to this technology, we succeeded in training 17 000 Bulgarian teachers, or 12% of all teachers in Bulgaria, in 5 months in...
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has unveiled a set of moderately optimistic projections for the financial and economic development of the country in 2011, and in the 2012-2014 period.
Thus, the government expects a gradual decrease of the unemployment rate to start in the second half of the year, with 2011 bringing a stabilization of the labor market after the negative developments in 2009 and 2010 caused by the economic crisis.
The average 2011 unemployment rate is expected to be 10%, and...
Bulgaria ranks 135th in the world by the quality of its road infrastructure, Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, announced Tuesday.
Traikov took part in the conference "Competitiveness of Bulgarian Economy – Absorption of EU Funds."
The Minister further said Bulgaria ranks 90th by innovations, behind countries such as Tunisia and Indonesia, which are rated among the top 50.
Other rankings reported by the Minister are – the 140th spot by effectiveness of institutions,...
A number of Italian companies have declared readiness to invest in the development of Bulgaria's renewable energy sector at a round table organized by Confindustria Bulgaria.
Confindustria Bulgaria, the association of Italian businesses working in the country, brought together key Bulgarian government figures and potential investors to explore the possibilities of Bulgaria's renewable energy sector. The event was organized in collaboration with Ice Sofia and with the support of Unicredit...
Bulgaria's government has assured fiscal indicators look good in terms of euro-adoption criteria, although entry into the euro zone is no longer dubbed top priority.
"Our indicators look good in terms of the euro-adoption criteria," Deputy Finance Minister Boryana Pencheva said in an interview for Bloomberg agency.
According to her efforts to adopt the euro will get a boost from joining Europe's Competitiveness Pact.
"The program ensures we work toward meeting all of the technical...
Bulgaria registered a miniature budget surplus in March after substantial deficits in the first two months of the year, according to preliminary data of the Finance Ministry.
Thus, in March 2011, the monthly balance of the Consolidated Fiscal Program of the government showed a surplus of BGN 8.6 M.
This result comes as a marked improvement after Bulgaria registered a deficit of BGN 750 M on cash basis in the first two months of 2011, or BGN 100 M more than Finance Minister Simeon...
Bulgaria's largest mattress producer TED-BED Jsc has registered impressive results on the European markets, and has directed its attention towards new export destinations such as South Korea and Taiwan.
In the first quarter of 2011, TED-BED registered a 150%-growth of export sales compared with the same period of 2010, while its production capacity has tripled.
"These results show that we are solidifying our positions, and are headed in the right direction. Our greatest challenge is to...
Bulgaria's largest pharmaceutical producer Sopharma, which registered record profit in 2010, plans to boost its presence in key Eastern European markets.
Sopharma owner and CEO Ognyan Donev has made clear his expectations that Sopharma will expand its business operations in the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, and Turkey, and will be watching closely the market situation in Greece.
"My dream is to see Sopharma develop as successfully as it has in the past two years," Donev...
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