Bulgarian Trakiya highway's permit application form is to be approved by the European Commission by the end of 2010, according to Deputy Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski.
The application form has gone through all the required processing and is currently undergoing a mutual agreement procedure at the European Commission, Moskovski announced.
The highway's total budget is EUR 250 M, of which EUR 188 M has already been secured.
The construction of the longest trace betwen towns of...
Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency has opened the Daskalovo road junction, which is expected to unclog the road traffic in all of Western Bulgaria, including the roads to Macedonia and Greece.
The Daskalovo junction connects two major highways in Southwestern Bulgaria, which are still under construction – the 19-km Lyulin Highway, and the 156-km Struma Highway.
The head of the Road Infrastructure Agency, Bozhidar Yotov, opened on Friday only the lower level of the Daskalovo road...
Bulgaria's long- and short- term foreign and local currency credit ratings has been affirmed as 'BBB/A-3' by the credit agency Standard&Poor's.
The agency has deemed the long-term credit rating outlook for the country as stable. The transfer and convertibility risk assessment (T&C assessment) rating remains an unchanged 'A'.
"The ratings on the Republic of Bulgaria factor in our favorable view of its fiscal track record, its low gross debt, and its medium-term growth...
The Bulgarian government announced Thursday three new bids for exploration for oil and gas in the northern parts of the country.
Bulgarian legislation has it that companies must compete to get a permit to either explore or produce undergroun natural resources.
Of the three new territories open for prospecting, two are in the northeastern and one in the northwestern part of the country.
The territories are: "Block 4 Kubrat" (area: 2,500 sq.km.), "Block 5 Byala" (2000 sq.km.) and "Block...
Several Bulgarian NGOs on promoting web technologies have come together to form what has been described as informal association of the digital industry.
The participants that signed Thursday a cooperation memorandum include the Webit Ambassadors Program for Central and Eastern Europe, a program of the organizers of the largest e-business expo in Eastern Europe – the Sofia-based Webit; the Bulgarian Advertisers' Association, the Bulgarian National Self-Regulation Council, the Bulgarian Web...
The "first real shopping mall" in the Bulgarian Danube city of Ruse opened doors with large crowds of shoppers storming it to raid the brand new stores.
The total investment in the construction of "Mega Mall" is BGN 64 M; the total built-up area of the mall is 48 000 square meters.
Of those, the commercial space is 17 800 square meters, and contains 100 stores, many of which are occupied by global brands entering the market of the Danube city of Ruse for the first time. The popular...
Bulgaria's Cabinet and the World Bank have singed a "memorandum of understanding" for reforms in the Bulgarian state railways company BDZ.
The exact sums of the loans that Bulgaria will get from the international financial institution have not been completely negotiated yet, announced Finance Minister and Deputy PM Simeon Djankov.
The memorandum signed Wednesday is a framework agreement which outlines the key reform priorities in the Bulgarian railway sector, and is an actual follow-up to...
Bulgaria's only stock exchange became a public company after the Financial Supervision Commission approved its prospectus and the bourse was listed on its own platform.
The capital of the bourse is a total of BGN 6 582 860 at BGN 1 apiece. The actual trade with shares will start after the upcoming registration of the stock exchange's public state and new status in the Trade Registry.
Bulgaria's Finance Ministry raised at the beginning of October its share to 50% plus one share from 44% in...
Bulgarian households' financial wealth has increased by nearly BGN 4 B over the past year, according to Sofia-based consultancy Industry Watch.
Industry Watch's report "Personal Assets in Bulgaria: Financial Weatlh and Housing Market, Q3 2010" indicating that at the end of November 2010, Bulgarians' assets were worth a little more than BGN 38 B.
The Financial assets of the population have increased by 11% y-o-y due to the increased propensity of households to save. However, the report...
Bulgaria's new Renewable Energy source act will be ready in two weeks, the country's Energy Minister has stated.
The act aims at meeting the mandatory targets set by EU's Directive on the Promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources - a16 % share of RES on the final consumption of energy in 2020 and at least 10% share of renewable energy in final consumption of energy in transport by the same deadline.
Bulgaria's renewable energy legislation will be harmonized with EU laws in...
The introduction of electric cars in Bulgaria will be encouraged through creating a network of charging stations, a memorandum states.
The memorandum between Sofia's mayor Yordanka Fandakova and the regional manager of the Czech-owned power utility CEZ for Bulgaria, Jan Vavera, was signed Tuesday.
Fandakova has committed to facilitate the granting of permits and establishing of rights needed to build charging stations on municipal property.
On its part, the power utility will...
Two units of Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA have acquired minority stakes in Bulgarian lender Corporate Commercial Bank AD, the bank announced.
Generali conducted the transactions through its units Fata Assicurazioni Danni SpA and Fata Vita SpA, the bank said.
The price of the deal was not disclosed, but hours before it was concluded the Corporate Commercial Bank sold a 2.67% for nearly BGN 10 M on the Sofia Stock Exchange.
The new shareholders are known to have close ties...
The company "BG Privateinvest" is the new owner of the two of the leading Bulgarian dailies "Trud" (Labor), "24 Chasa" (24 Hours), and the weekly "168 Chasa" (168 Hours), "Trud" writes Tuesday afternoon.
Vienna-based "BG Privateinvest GmbH" and Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher WAZ media group have signed the agreement to transfer WAZ ownership of the above newspapers, its magazines, the printing facility "Sofia" and the distribution company "Strela" (Arrow) to the...
Bulgaria's economy minister will launch officially on Tuesday the construction works of a EUR 150 M, 45-megawatt solar park in central Bulgaria, near the city of Veliko Tarnovo.
SDN Co., a South Korean producer of power generators, solar modules and marine propellers, is building the photovoltaic park, which will be the biggest in the country.
EUR 20 M have already been invested in the solar power plant since August...
A record 13% increase has been indicated in Bulgaria's flights in November 2010, most notably in freight transportation .
As many as 300 flights with cargo planes have been executed to and from Bulgaria in November 2010, which means a 17% increase year on year. The boost is most significant in Bulgaria's Air Max carrier and DHL's European Air Transport.
It has been recently reported that countries such as China and South Korea are ready to invest in Bulgaria's freight transportation...
The Bulgarian Directorate for National Construction Supervision (DNSK) has announced it is starting to remove the illegal constructions near the Iskar Reservoir.
The removing comes four years after the illegal construction near the Iskar Reservoir has been established.
26 orders for demolishing one-floor houses, cottages and fences have been issued and they have to be completed by January 13, 2011.
“In the meantime, two owners have removed their own villas in the region of the...
Ernst & Young, one of the world's leading professional services companies, expects that the Bulgarian economy will grow by 3.6% in 2011, the same growth rate forecast by the Bulgarian government.
In its Eurozone Economic Forecast Winter 2010, Ernst & Young says it expects the Bulgarian economy to shrink by 1% in 2010 overall, and to return to a growth of more than 6% after 2012 (6% in 2012, 6.9% in 2013) – even though the analysis also outlines certain major risks for this scenario.
The...
Representatives of major companies from South Korea have informed Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov of their large-scale investment plans for the country at a meeting on Monday.
The Korean Development Bank, Korea South-East Power Co., Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, and SDN Company Ltd have presented to Borisov the project for the construction of a photovoltaic park near the village of Zlataritsa close to Veliko Tarnovo.
The facility will feature a power distribution and a 4.7-km...
Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is sending to the country's winter resorts police patrols whose members speaks up to three foreign languages, Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, informs.
Tsvetanov spoke Monday during a meeting with EU, Norway and Switzerland Ambassadors to Sofia, saying this was just one of the measures undertaken by his institution to provide safety for the visitors. In some resorts, such as Pamporovo, police will be even watching the ski tracks.
Policemen's fluency in foreign...
Bulgaria’s National Electric Company (NEK) is preparing a tender for remittance of part of its telecommunications network, the company’s CEO Krasimir Parvanov has announced.
“At present we use only 30% of our network and the rest could transmit digital television throughout the country, as well as 70% of the Internet,” the company has explained.
NEK has built a fiber optic network in parallel with the rehabilitation of its own grid.
The cables have been placed in the...
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