Author: Ivan Dikov | November 22, 2010
In June 2010, the Bulgarian government broke the news that it formally invited Chinese authorities and companies to set up and manage a joint industrial zone in Bozhurishte, right outside of Sofia, a development that can well be seen as revolutionary.
The Concept of Industrial Zones in Bulgaria
In the recent years many in Bulgaria started to hope that industrial zones - areas planned for industrial development, logistics, and, in more specific cases, office and bussiness parks - would be the key to the country"s economic takeoff.
As the Bulgarian state finances and economy stabilized after tht 1990s collapse thanks to the curensy board, the eventual completion, more or less, of the structural reforms, the gaining of NATO and EU membership, and the introduction of sinfully (in the good sense) low taxes, hopes have been that Bulgaria"s crucial geographic location and its still skilled labor force would drive in more and more foreign investors.
These hopes might have been overstated, with every single small town mayor deciding to set aside a municipal plot and wait for investors to show up. In 2008, the Socialist-led Stanishev government announced a rather interesting plan to set up 100 industrial zones around the country, turning Bulgaria into a largely export-driven economy by 2018. Top government officials have been talking about how Bulgaria offers outsourcing conditions competitive to those of Chindia.
While all that did not really translate into extremely impressive industrial investments in Bulgaria in the past couple of years – largely because of the global economic crisis – it did lead many to realize and state the potential of export-oriented industries.
The Rakovski Industrial Zone, in the Rakovski Municipality near Plovdiv, a project of SIENIT Holding, widely seen as a major success story in greenfield industrial developments in Bulgaria. Photo by SIENIT Holding.
With the global crisis now winding down replique montre france and a new set of institutional endeavors, Bulgaria might finally have found the right track for its development of industrial zones. A "National Company Industrial Zones" (NCIZ) was set up in early 2009 to work closely with the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Transport, and the InvestBulgaria Agency, all of those including a number of technocrats and professionals with education and management experience from Western countries and companies.
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