Bulgaria has achieved the much desired restoration of its accreditation for the international trade with greenhouse gas quotas by the UN Committee for Compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry announced Saturday the permit to trade with Bulgaria's carbon quotas – which is expected to bring in fresh revenues for the state budget – was restored during the 12th meeting of the Kyoto Protocol Compliance Committee in Bonn, Germany, on February 3-4.
The Ministry...
Bulgarian public relations expert Maxim Behar has been selected to moderate the opening debate of the World PR Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The World Forum for Communication Top-Managers will start on February 17 in Davos, Switzerland, and will continue for two days.
Bulgaria's PR guru Maxim Behar will be in charge of the debate between two of the world's leading experts in PR and marketing – Paul Holmes, Founder and CEO of The Holmes Report and the SABRE awards, and Garrett Johnston,...
The Czech-owned electricity provider of Sofia and Western Bulgaria CEZ plans to invest a total of BGN 59 M in its network and capacities in 2011.
The CEZ investments only in the Sofia District will be BGN 16.5 M, the company said in a statement.
On Thursday, CEZ opened a new power substation near the town of Kostinbrod close to Sofia, while being a small town, is a hub for several manufacturing plant of Bulgarian and foreign investors.
"The clients are the main priority for our...
Bulgaria will be looking for a strategic investor for its largest weapons factory, VMZ Sopot, which has been scheduled for privatization.
This a major win for Minister of Economy and Energy Traicho Traikov, who has been fighting with FinMin Simeon Djankov, a supporter of a mere financial investor.
"Financial investors will be able to participate only in a consortium with stategic investors," said Traikov for the Bulgarian National Radio.
"Our goal is not to get rid of the company, but...
The breaking ground for the largest so far shopping mall in Bulgaria will be made in June 2011, in the area of the southern loop of the capital Sofia's beltway.
The news was reported Wednesday by the Minister of Regional Development, Rosen Plevneliev, who, together with the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, inspected the construction of the road junction "Simeonovo" to the "Mladost" junction on the beltway.
The mall will have an area of 180 000 square meters and the investment amount is...
Israeli holding, named Bulgarian Agriculture Properties, is planning to invest in the vegetables production and processing sector in the Bulgarian city of Yambol.
As a result, about 2500 new job positions are expected to be revealed in the city.
Last week representatives of the company visited Yambol following the invitation of the Chair of the Municipal Council, Nasko Stefanov, who had asked the Yambol mayor, Georgi Slavov, to point out suitable sites for greenhouse and summer production...
Five more shopping malls will open doors in Sofia in the next 2-3 years, according to real estate company GVA Sollers Solutions.
Construction works have already begun for three of them. The mall in the Lozenets district of Sofia is currently at the most advanced stage. Its name is "Paradise Center" and it is expected to be the largest mall in Bulgaria.
It is expected to have a built-up area of more than 170,000 square meters, with commercial area of 75,000 square meters.
At present,...
The Center for Urban Mobility at the Sofia City Hall plans to extend the paid parking hours in downtown Bulgaria's capital to 8 pm on workdays.
Currently parking in the so-called blue zone is free after 6 pm. According to the planned changes, the blue zone will be divided in 2 – one with prices of BGN 2 per hour, the other – BGN 1 per hour.
The new blue zone will be enclosed between the "Slivnitsa," "Vasil Levski," "Skobelev," and "Hristo Botev" boulevards. In this area, the parking...
Bulgaria’s Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos opened Saturday a new tobacco processing plant in the Bulgarian town of Sandanski.
About EUR 9.5 M have been invested in the new plant of the Greek Leaf Tobacco company and it will provide jobs for 600 people.
The new facility will be connected to the central production hall of the company in Policastro, Greece.
The plant in Sandanski, which has a production capacity of 4 to 6 tons per...
Bulgaria's composite business climate index improved by 1.9% in January compared with December 2010.
The index is already 6.6 percentage points over its lowest value in the past two years, according to data of the National Statistical Institute.
The improvement is largely due to the increase of the business climate in industry by 4.2% compared with December 2010 because of the managers' better expectations for the next six months.
The indicator for production activity of the Bulgarian...
Bulgaria's IT market will grow by an annual average of 6% in 2011-2015, according to the Bulgaria Information Technology Report 2011 of Business Monitor International (BMI).
The report says that Bulgarian IT market will grow to an estimated USD 947 M in 2011, up from USD 902 M in 2010.
The compounded annual growth rate of 6% forecast by BMI for the Bulgarian IT sector is below the pre-economic crisis trend level.
The report says that Bulgarian IT spending is forecast to record low...
The ruling majority in Bulgaria's Parliament has voted down a proposal for a several-month delay in the introduction of a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector.
Bulgaria will introduce a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector as of the beginning of April this year under amendments that Parliament adopted conclusively on Wednesday.
The right-wing Blue Coalition had insisted that the flat rate be introduced as of October after the summer season, saying that in...
The Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism has launched an online calendar listing interesting tourists sites and events.
The calendar has a web address - www.potarsi.bulgariatravel.org.
The site will be updated consistently and will collect information about travel, city and town celebrations, festivals, and others.
Users, organizations and institutions are invited to contribute to the site's content by sending information to office@reforma.bg, the Ministry...
The troubled VMZ Sopot factory, which is Bulgaria's largest defense industry plant and was once the pride of its military-industrial complex, will be put on the privatization table by the Borisov Cabinet.
The decision to start the privatization of VMZ Sopot is No. 1 on the agenda of the government's weekly meeting on Thursday.
The Bulgarian Cabinet is expected to approve for sale all 118 million shares of the military giant. The privatization is supposed to take place with a tender,...
The number of Bulgarians who have made online purchases more than once a month in the last year went up two times, according to a poll of "Gemius Bulgaria."
The poll has been commissioned by the "Allegro Group," a retail company with business in Central and Eastern Europe.
In 2010 Bulgarian internet shoppers were 22% of the population, compared to 13% in 2009.
7% of consumers make 5 or more purchases a month and 54% of Bulgarians have used the net to make purchases. The number of those...
Euro Solar Parks, Inc., a company based in New Jersey, USA, has announced the completion of its acquisition of two land properties for solar parks in Bulgaria.
The strategic properties are located in the Karlovo Municipality in Central Bulgaria, and have an area of approximately 11 560 square meters.
Both properties have short distances to the national power grid. They were acquired for the purpose of developing small-sized solar plants that run up to 0.7 MW. The plants will be known as...
A Bulgarian-Japanese business forum was held in Tokyo Monday within PM Boyko Borisov's official visit to Japan.
The meeting was co-organized by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and was opened by the chairman of the Japanese-Bulgarian Economic Council, Koichiro Fukui.
Bulgarian Ministers of Economy and Energy Traicho Traikov and of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov also took part in the forum.
The Bulgarian party stressed on the...
Japan is very interested in importing chicken meat from Bulgaria, Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, announced Tuesday.
Naydenov, who is in Japan with the official Bulgarian delegation, led by Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, met with the Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Michihiko Kano.
Japan had to slaughter many of its chicken over the avian flu and there is currently a shortage of poultry products on the Japanese market.
According to Naydenov, Japan will...
Japanese companies are exploring opportunities to use the Bulgarian ports on the Black Sea and the Danube for their trade with the European Union, according to the Bulgarian government.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who is in Japan on a four-day visit (January 22-26, 2011) heading a sizable Bulgarian government and business delegation, met Monday with Hiromasa Yonekura, Chair of Nippon Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation, and CEO of the Sumitomo Chemical company.
The news...
The Bulgarian government will subsidize companies who offer green jobs and hire unemployed people for an at least 6 month period.
This was announced Monday at a joint press conference between Bulgaria's Ministers of Environment, Nona Karadzhova, and of Labor, Totyu Mladenov. BGN 3.2 M have been included for green jobs in the national plan for coping with unemployment, which will secure 2100 new job places with a monthly salary of BGN 240 for half a year.
No research has been carried out...
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