During a session of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) annual meeting in London on 18 April 2004, the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Lidia Shouleva highl…
During a session of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) annual meeting in London on 18 April 2004, the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Lidia Shouleva highlighted the Sisecam project in the northeastern Bulgarian town of Targovishte as an example of the support foreign investors will get if they invest more than EUR 50 million. In return for an investment of USD 160 million to build a float glass plant, the Government will cover the costs of building the related infrastructure including electricity supply facilities, a gas pipeline and water and sewerage networks. The Government will allocate about BGL 12.5 million for this purpose. Emerging from a session of the EBRD meeting, Shouleva was also able to announce that by the end of 2004, the EBRD will open credit lines totalling EUR 40 million for Bulgarian commercial banks to extend loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The credit lines will be available to Hebros Bank of Plovdiv (EUR 6 million), the Bulgarian Post Bank (EUR 10 million), and DSK Bank (EUR 10 million). Bulbank and TBIH will get EUR 2.5 million each to finance leasing projects. Among Bulgaria“s attractions to investors Shouleva cited the country“s political and economic stability, stable macroeconomic indicators, competitive workforce, access to a market with more than 560 million consumers, and the more than 100 agreements on reciprocal promotion of investments and avoidance of double taxation that Bulgaria has signed. Shouleva called on investors to make use of Bulgaria“s accelerated development and increase the amount of the investments they have planned.