Sofia Municipality will encourage investments and help the small and medium-sized business through the launching of a special agency. The agency will be established by mid 2016 and its purpose will be to provide detailed information to companies which intend to invest in Sofia. The agency will provide various consulting services and issue certificates of local significance type B.

According to representatives of the local business, Sofia has been in need of such institution for a long time. In the latest report of Bloomberg foundation, Sofia was described as a European city which in a period of 10 years (from 2003 until 2013) registered highest increase of the gross domestic product per capita. Besides, according to data provided by the city municipality, Sofia is the Bulgarian city with lowest unemployment rates - only 3% registered in January 2015, whereas the average unemployment rate in Bulgaria amounted to 11.1%.

We are not planning to launch a new administrative structure. We are to use the existing structure established some 20 years ago, i.e. the Privatization and Post-Privatization Control Agency, says Valya Chilova who is to head the new specialized department.

“Our main task is attracting foreign investments and present Sofia as attractive destination for potential investors. The idea about the establishment of this agency was born four years ago. We made a very useful business trip in Germany, where we saw that most German municipalities have similar agencies for investments and economic cooperation. Each municipality takes good care of the business on its territory. We want to achieve this goal in Sofia, too. Our purpose is to attract more investments in this city, rather than increase local taxes. So far no Bulgarian municipality benefited from the opportunity provided by the Investment Promotion Act. We hope that Sofia will soon start issuing certificates for investors of local significance. According to the law, the investor has to invest at least EUR 1 million, in order to receive this certificate. We are also working on a new regulation, which has to set the minimum number of job positions and the period a given investor has to keep these jobs, in order to receive a certificate in Sofia”, Valya Chilova explains.

The agency is to open an information office in Sofia city center near the Sofia University Saint Kliment Ohridski. Thus, the citizens will have better access to its services. We must do our best to attract foreign investments in Bulgaria and restore the confidence of the foreign investors, so they can open more job positions, Valya Chilova went on to say.

“The actual work will start after the local elections on October 25, 2015, when the new municipal council will be constituted. We are planning to invite experts from the INVESTBULGARIA AGENCY who have rich experience working with big investors. Later, the Sofia Municipal Privatization Agency will be restructured within a period of one to two months. Thus, we will start issuing investment certificates. The business associations will be invited to give their opinion. They will help us develop specific criteria necessary for the issuance of given business certificates”, Valya Chilova concludes.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov