site.btaWorld Bank Group Unveils Shared Services Centre in Sofia

July 18 (BTA) - A Shared Services Centre of the World
Bank Group was unveiled at the Sofia Tech Park in the Bulgarian
capital on Thursday. The grand opening was attended by World
Bank Managing Director and World Bank Group Chief Administrative
 Officer Shaolin Yang, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov,
Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and Sofia Mayor Yordanka
Fandakova.

The Centre will provide top quality IT support for the World
Bank's activities around the world. It will offer real-time
cooperation and assistance for the Bank's operations in more
than 160 countries. The facility will ensure uninterrupted
provision of internal services in the areas of IT, financial
management and human resources management.

Yang thanked the Bulgarian government for the partnership in
building the Centre, describing it as a new phase in the more
general partnership between Bulgaria and the World Bank.

Prime Minister Borissov noted that the IT sector in Bulgaria is
developing twice or three times as rapidly as in the rest of the
 EU. He thanked World Bank Group Chief Executive Kristalina
Georgieva for showing through her work with the Bank that
Bulgarians deserve to be trusted. Borissov thanked the World
Bank for providing consultation for selecting the concessionaire
 of Sofia Airport, which was completed on Wednesday. He
described it as one of the most complex and important
concessions. He expressed hope that the Bank will also assist
the building of the Sofia-Skopje-Tirana corridor, "a
geostrategic, extremely important facility which will add much
impetus to the region's development."

Finance Minister Goranov stressed the fact that Sofia is the
second place after Chennai, India where the World Bank Group has
 set up a shared services centre.

The project is being implemented in stages. The centre's staff
will reach its full size of over 300 employees in five years.
The facility will hire 75 IT experts by the summer of 2020.
Their number will increase to 150 in 2021 and 200 in later
years.

Talking with Managing Director Yang earlier in the day, Prime
Minister Borissov expressed his government's support for the
World Bank Shared Services Centre in Sofia, the Council of
Ministers press office said. He expressed his confidence that
the facility will have a positive impact on the Bulgarian
economy. It will build upon the country's potential in sectors
of high added value and will provide high-tech jobs. Besides,
the presence of a prestigious organization like the World Bank
in Sofia will boost Bulgaria's reputation as an attractive
business and investment destination.

Borissov said Bulgaria and the World Bank Group maintain steady,
 long-lasting partnership which is being developed further. He
singled out the country's advantages as an attractive
destination for institutions of the World Bank's calibre: a
gateway location, a stable political and economic environment,
skilled labour and very good infrastructure. LY/VE

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