Delegation to tour markets to seek motor vehicle manufacturer to relocate to Bulgaria
A Bulgarian delegation including former president Rossen Plevneliev and Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov is to tour markets in Europe and beyond the continent in 2018 to seek a global motor vehicle manufacturer to move its entire production to Bulgaria.
This emerged at a conference in Sofia on February 8, which was addressed by Karanikolov and former president Plevneliev.
Karanikolov said that the motor vehicle industry’s share in Bulgaria’s Gross Domestic Product was 3.6 per cent, a figure that had quadrupled in the past 10 years.
There are more than 130 companies involved in the motor industry in Bulgaria, together employing more than 30 000 people, he said.
Karanikolov said that Bulgaria’s motor industry exports also had been increasing, with a record 60 per cent growth in 2010, and the figures for 2014 and 2015 showing that this growth trend was maintained, by 17 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
He said that for the industry to operate efficiently, skilled labour was required. Karanikolov noted that there were currently 17 high schools, 103 vocational high schools, a private college and five secondary schools with classes related to the industry.
Between 2005 and January 2018, a total of 20 certificates under the Investment Promotion Act were issued to motor industry fims. The total investment in the projects amounted to just more than 797.5 million leva, with 12 664 new jobs created.
(Photo: Graham Briggs/sxc.hu)
