site.btaMunicipal Investment Agency to Be Set Up in Sofia

Municipal Investment Agency to Be Set Up in Sofia

Sofia, July 22 (BTA) - A municipal investment agency will be set
 up under Sofia City Hall by the middle of 2016 to promote
investment and support small and medium-sized businesses in the
capital, Sofia City Council Chairman Elen Gerdjikov told a news
conference on July 21.

The idea was first unveiled by Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova in
 March.

The agency will be a place where companies intending to make
investments in Sofia can get all the information they need from
a single source. It can provide preferential administrative
treatment for potential investors, offer various consulting
services and award Class B certificates of investment of local
significance. This will make Sofia the first Bulgarian
municipality to issue such certificates.

To set up the investment agency, the authorities will use the
capacity of the Municipal Privatization Agency (MPA) whose
activity has diminished over the last few years. MPA will be
restructured without recruiting new employees. It has proven its
 expertise and can be made useful by first giving it additional
functions, Gerdjikov said.

Nikolai Stoinev, who chairs the Economic Policy Committee at the
 Sofia Municipal Council, said there are 100,000 registered
companies in Sofia and 98 per cent of them are small or
medium-sized.