Top Investor in Bulgaria to Be Awarded  

8 December 2004, Wednesday.

The investor of largest contribution to Bulgarian economy will be awarded with the newly established prize "Investment 2004".

The award project is developed by the Economy Ministry and the BulgariaInvest Agency and organises the competing investors in three categories, including New Investment, Investment in SMEs, and Investment in Tourism.

Contestants can be domestic and foreign investors to the country.

A jury of Bulgaria's major financial and banking institutions and associations will review the applications due to be considered on December 10. The official awarding ceremony for Investment 2004 is scheduled for December 22.

Attracting investments to the country has been a priority of Bulgarian government. Direct foreign investments for the period January-September has overreached the record high of EUR 1 B, some EUR 150 M more on a year-on-year basis. It is expected that the lump rate of investments would reach EUR 2 B at the end of this year.

The 8-million Balkan country acts like a magnate for investments to South East Europe with about 30% of total investments in the region.