News

  A few days since Bulgaria enjoys its accession to the EU, the annual international conference Bulgaria Dream Area has been the first business event to landmark the new realities.

  The sixth edition of the conference to run January 10-11 at Kempinski Hotel Zografski, in Sofia, will focus the eyes back on tourism, one of the country's most fast developing and promising sector.

  "Tourism is a sector has earned enormous progress in the last ten years, but it still fails to engage all the potential of this country and its people," said Bob Miller, former Nevada governor and a long-time friend of Bulgaria.

  The event will be opened by Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev on Wednesday. Words of welcome will be said also by Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov, Stanislav Novakov from the state Tourism Authority and Mathieu Hoeberigs from the Tourism Unit of the European Commission.

  The event will gather for the first times the tourism ministers from the Balkan region. They will consider the opportunities for further development and exchange of experience between Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, as well as Ukraine.

 Estate buyers from Russia, Ireland, Spain and France are eager for Bulgaria's seaside, the Financial Times said Saturday.
The story points out a tendency for more upscale development - high-end villas and bigger apartments.
The regions of the Avren, a village cuddled in the forest near Varna, and historic Balchik are pointed out as some of the examples of this higher-level construction with good onsite facilities.

  Schenker Bulgaria plans the construction of the biggest East European logistics centre in Bulgaria.

The company would invest 7.5 million euro in the first year after the project was launched, Dnevnik daily reported.

The centre will cover an area of 47 000 sq m at the entrance of the town of Bozhourishte, near Sofia. It will be opened by the end of 2007 and will accommodate Schenker’s headquarters and its Sofia office.

Recently Schenker manager Minko Vasilevski told Dnevnik that the new centre would include a 2000 sq m cross-docking store and a 3000 sq m logistic store.

  European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey Van Orden said that discussion on the work and closure of Bulgarias Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) was possible, though major changes were unlikely.

Bulgaria had to close four units of its six-reactor NPP because of EU nuclear safety requirements. Units three and four were closed on December 31 2006 although EU experts declared them to be safe.

Van Orden said that he was disappointed that EP and Bulgaria failed to negotiate better agreement for units three and four.

The reactor closure was a mistake of the EP, he said as quoted by Focus news agency.

Nuclear energy will become more important to the EU as the union wants to achieve energy stability and energy independence from Russia and Middle Eastern countries.

Europe would have to prepare a new energy strategy and new discussions on the fate of Kozloduy NPP were possible, Van Orden said.

 Individuals and companies from European Union states that are permanently based in Bulgaria will be able to buy land for a second home here, and will have eased access to ownership of farmland.

This is in terms of amendments to the Ownership Act, the first reading of which was approved by Parliament on December 8.

Reporting from Parliament, Bulgarian news agency BTA said that the amended act replaced the term "foreigner" with "national of a (EU) member state" enabling EU citizens and European Economic Area citizens - meaning the EU countries and Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein - to be able to buy land in accordance with an approved international treaty.

Foreigners would also be able to inherit land, according to the amendments.        

 The famous Irish low cost airplane company - Ryan air will open regular cheap flights from The International airport in Plovdiv to Germany, England and Spain. This was announced yesterday by the executive director of the airport Plamen Nikolov. It is expected the flights of the first worldwide low cost airplane company to start in August.
It is not accidental the fact that Plovdiv is the chosen town. The disposal of the town and its airport goes hand in hand with the philosophy of the company, which exactly is the existence of regular bus transport to the capital and the international resorts, also to historical finds. It is even already specified the exact airport that will take the landing planes in Germany – Hahn, which is 80 km. away from Frankfurt.
The airports in Spain and England are still not chosen. The prices offered by the airplane company will be competitive to the prices of the bus tickets to the same destinations. Yesterday the transport minister in Bulgaria - Peter Mutafchiev, inspected the international airport, few days before the winter charter program to start. (It starts on 23-th of December)
The passenger’s terminal is renovated. 160 000 lv. were invested in the repair work. The most important part of the renovation is the new automatic luggage checking system, which is now in process of 72-hours testing. 480 passengers will be served per hour using the new equipment of the airport.
According to the minister of transport the airport will be ready to be given under concession in March 2007.

 The papers have been full of headlines warning us of the flood of migrants queuing to come to the UK on January 1st - the day when Bulgaria joins the European Union.
So, it was hardly a surprise when we turned up at Sofia airport to be greeted as 'GDFs' (God Damn Foreigners) by our local fixer Ogi Znatev.

He may have been joking, but there was a clear undercurrent of resentment in the way his fellow countrymen were being portrayed in the British media. We were sent to Bulgaria to produce a series of reports on the country joining the EU.

Having read up on a few basic rules (Bulgaria is one of the rare places in the world where shaking your head means yes and nodding your head means no), Working Lunch correspondent, Simon Gompertz, cameraman, Hume Fairholme and myself went to find out.

Bulgaria is home

Life in Bulgaria isn't as depressing as I thought it would be. While the Tower Blocks where most city dwellers live look bleak from the outside, what we found inside was a pleasant surprise.

We visited a "typical" Bulgarian family living in Sofia. Dragomir Nenkov was a graphic designer earning the equivalent of £235 a month, but he still managed to own his flat, run a car and provide enough for his wife and nine month old baby. That's not to say life isn't tight. There's no money left for saving or for a pension. But they seemed happy. And did they want to leave? No. Bulgaria is their home.

That was also the impression we got when visiting the university. Not many of the students we spoke to wanted to get out. On the contrary, they were optimistic about the EU and what it would mean for them. Anyone wanting to go, we were told, had already left.

 The old school in the village of Sitovo is going to become the first eco-cultural centre in the region of Plovdiv. This was announced yesterday by Rodophi municipality. The stone school was sold for the price of 55 000E two years ago. It was bought by Nikola Dimitrov, the owner of an advertising and trading company in Sofia. The saying goes that he is a descendent of an old generation which comes from the village of Bojkovo and it used to rule half of the territory of Rodophi mountain.
“Now we are making repairs of the building. There will be halls for marshal arts, yoga, dancing, a music studio, etc.” said N. Dimitrov. Creative seminars, outdoor school classes for children, climbing and horse riding will be also organized there. It is planned to have special programs for children from poor families.
Projects for two ecoroutes are prepared, as well and volunteers will mark them.            

 A review of search engine entries during the last three months has revealed that Bulgarian property is quickly becoming one of Europe's leading investment interests.

The research by d2rworldwide.com reveals that the recent surge of interest in Bulgarian property is unprecedented in the Eastern European market, although some comparisons have been drawn with Croatia.

Like Croatia, Bulgaria is expecting EU accession within the next few years and this will necessarily lead to a considerable increase in its real estate value. A similar process has already started to occur in Cyprus and when Bulgaria accedes to the European Union in 2007 it is widely believed that Sofia in particular will compete with other leading European capitals as a location for the European offices of many multi-national companies.

This is likely to instigate a successful corporate market which could transform Bulgaria into one of Europe's most attractive countries for property investment within the next few years.

Stuart Law, managing director of property investment specialist Assetz, anticipated this boom in April 2005, pointing to Bulgaria's diverse landscape as well as its potential for development.

 The RIU chain will be opening two new establishments in the eastern Mediterranean in May: ClubHotel Riu Miramar on the Bulgarian coast near Obzor and Riu Fantasy Beach, RIU’s first hotel in Romania.

ClubHotel Riu Miramar is located on the beach between the Golden Sands and Sunny Beach resorts on the shores of the Black Sea. Its 2 to 5-storey building is surrounded by 14,000 square metres of garden.

ClubHotel Riu Miramar is a 4-star establishment that boasts 500 rooms and modern installations, including a 150-square-metre indoor swimming pool with jacuzzi and a 300-square-metre conference hall which is ideal for incentive trips and business meetings.

The hotel features the all-inclusive formula and its extensive gastronomical offer includes local dishes at special Bulgarian grilled dinners in the theme restaurant, reservations required.