site.btaUPDATED Agency Grants 25 Class A and B Investment Project Certificates in 2024

The InvestBulgaria Agency awarded 25 Class A and B investment project certificates in 2024. The Agency also certified two investment projects of priority status under the Investment Promotion Act, the authority says on its internet site.

The 22 Class A certificates are for BGN 351 million in total investments in the next three years. They are expected to create 966 jobs in the Bulgarian economy.

The three Class B certificates are for BGN 7,432,000 in total investments, which will open 53 new job positions.

The two investment projects of priority status as per the Investment Promotion Act will be implemented in the south central municipality of Stara Zagora. They include a BGN 287,582,000 undertaking of the Smart Solar Technologies company to build a plant for the manufacture of solar power systems and cells in the Zagore Industrial Zone. It will create 827 jobs. The other priority investment is by the Zagore Industrial Zone, which plans to spend BGN 47,582,000 on building a Zagore Industrial Park.

Under the Investment Promotion Act and the Regulations for its application, Class A and B certificates are awarded by the Minister of Innovation and Growth to investment projects of specified threshold amounts creating a specified number of new jobs (varying by economic activity and location and entitle their holders to preferential treatment, such as:

• reduced waiting time for administrative services (issuance of design permits, improvement of investment projects, issuance of fire safety certificates);
• personalized administrative services, including provision of information and assistance to obtain the required documents; acquisition of a right of ownership or limited rights in rem or sale at lower-than-market prices without auction or contest for corporeal immovables constituting private state and private municipal property from the capital of wholly state- or municipal-owned companies;
• financial support for the construction of bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses, level crossings, transmission lines, drinking-water and wastewater treatment plans and other physical-infrastructure elements;
• financial support for occupational training of holders of the newly created jobs;
• financial support for partial reimbursement of employer-borne compulsory social-insurance and health-insurance contributions for newly appointed employees;
• setting up an interdepartmental working group for institutional support involving stakeholders, academics and NGOs, public-private partnership with regions and municipalities;
• provision of grant aid for investments in education and scientific research or in the manufacturing industry.