Shoumen Region To Spend 80m Leva On Road Repair 14/03/2008
More than 80 million leva will be invested in road reconstruction in Shoumen area by end-2009, regional governor Todor Todorov said on March 10 2008, as quoted by Bulgarian news agency (BTA). The first tranche, 10.4 million leva, has already been transferred. It is earmarked for the rehabilitation of second-class roads between the villages of Radko Dimitrievo-Hrabrovo, Hitrino-Struino, Vekilski-Nikola Kozlevo and Venets-Yassenkovo, he said. The necessary financing to repair two lanes of Hemus highway in the Kaspichan-Nevsha village section has been secured, as well, Todorov added. Construction on the new highway section between Shoumen and the village of Belokopitovo is expected to start in August. Repair works on the main thoroughfares Silistra-Yambol and Shoumen-Karnobat, funded... more

Business Tourism In Bulgaria To Flourish 09/04/2008
Number of Russian tourists and business trips to Bulgaria in the following couple of years are about to increase, prognostikates Andre Gribi from Switzerland on a meeting with the Board of Directors of the Union for Investments in Tourism. According to his words number of British tourists who visit the country will drop but the interest of Bulgarians towards local resorts will jump. The potential ‘Europe' is not used enough, and this is a reserve that hides considerable possibilities for increase of tourism incomes in Bulgaria. The interest to organizing seminars and team building trips in Bulgarian resorts will also increase. Bulgarian customer will become harder to please, he will demand for diversity and will require better service. Mr. Gribi's advice towards Bulgarian... more

Broken Eastern Promises 21/03/2008
The Alternative Investment Market (Aim) eastern European real-estate sector is so complicated, it could be deemed a specialist subject on Mastermind. Analysts claim there are too many companies to mention, often with confusingly similar names, and many more that vanished without a trace after failing to raise capital. "For every one that made it to the market, there's at least four that were stillborn," says Blue Oar Securities real-estate analyst Ian Wild. "Far too many were done far too quickly." Blue Oar research shows that since 2005, Ј9bn in new equity has been raised on Aim for real estate - mostly for for overseas property funds (OPFs). Of the total Ј12.25bn current market capitalisation, those focused on eastern Europe account for 17 per cent - the highest proportion. In... more

Bansko Attracts German Investors 15/03/2008
German business has professed an interest in the development of Bansko, said the German ambassador to Bulgaria, Michael Gayer, during his visit to the resort town. He was accompanied by a 12-member delegation from the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, headed by its president Bertram Rollman. The German ambassador pledged his support for future contacts between Bansko and similar German towns. He expressed his hope that, in the future, businessmen from Bansko would team up with German companies to apply jointly for common projects in infrastructure and culture exchange areas. "Our objective is to attract resources from EU funds to the region," Bansko mayor Alexander Kravarov said. more

Eastern Europe 'in Danger Of A Hard Landing' - Daily Telegraph 11/04/2008
Eastern Europe faces the growing risk of a ''hard landing" as the world's financial crisis spreads wider, with serious spill-over dangers for Scandinavian, Italian and Austria banks that have lent heavily to the region, the IMF has warned. Current account deficits have reached extreme levels across much of the ex-Soviet bloc, hitting 22.9pc in Latvia, 21.4pc in Bulgaria, 16.5pc in Serbia, 16pc in Estonia, 14.5pc in Romania and 13.3pc in Lithuania. "Eastern Europe has a cluster of countries with current account deficits financed by private debt or portfolio flows, where domestic credit has grown rapidly. A global slowdown, or a sharp drop in capital flows to emerging markets, could force a painful adjustment," said the fund in its Global Financial Stability Report. The IMF... more