site.btaBulgaria Needs to Rethink Private-Public Partnership Models to Step Up Large Infrastructure Projects - Deputy Transport Minister

Connectivity can be stepped up by rethinking the models for private-public partnership (PPP) in the construction of large infrastructure projects while at the same time improving the administrative capacity and business climate in Bulgaria, Bulgaria’s Deputy Transport Minister Anna Mihneva – Natova said during the Southeast Europe Connectivity Forum taking place in Thessaloniki.

She said that PPP and EU funding are the two models for funding large infrastructure projects and catalogued the financial instruments that Bulgaria has been using in this department.

The Deputy Minister spoke of the need to revise the national legislation because under the effective laws only concessions are recognized as PPP.

She dwelled on some practical problems in infrastructure building, including the adjustment of prices on the backdrop of the surging prices following the pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine.

As regards ongoing and future transport projects, Mihneva – Tanova said that the government is focused on developing the railway infrastructure, especially on the East-West axis, so as to ensure transport connections of European importance by 2030. Among the priorities she mentioned the modernization of the railway connection with Serbia, the Plovdiv-Burgas line that connects the interior of the country with the Black Sea, the connection with Turkiye. “It does not mean that we are ignoring the Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Aegian Sea connection and the inclusion in this corridor of Ukraine and Moldova, nor are we ignoring the Rein-Danube connectivity,” she said.

She further mentioned the need to improve connections with Greece by modernizing the railway linking Sofia with Kulata, on the Greek border, via Pernik and Radomir. That is planned for the 2021-2027 period.

Also, work continues on building rail connections with North Macedonia and Serbia. 

“But it is early days to speak of a high-speed train between Sofia and Athens. It is something to dream of. First, we need to improve the internal connections and the rail connections between Bulgaria and Greece, before we start to think of a high-speed train. I am aware that there is investor interest but this project is still on the table for the Bulgarian government to plan how to make it a reality with a PPP,” the Deputy Minister said.

In the roads department, Bulgaria is focused on completing Struma Motorway to the border with Greece and hopes that it will be ready during the ongoing programming period.