1st December, 2011 - London

Bulgaria has embarked on an ambitious program to become one of Europe’s most attractive investment destinations with a comprehensive strategy of reforms and investment promotion.

The Bulgarian government is currently revamping its Investment Promotion Act to provide more tailored investment stimuli to investors in a range of industries.
The legislative changes are happening in parallel to a series of global investment roadshows aimed at promoting specific sectors such as electronics, IT, BPO, healthcare and medical tourism, food and agriculture, chemicals, transportation equipment, logistics, and others.

The first investment forum took place in London on December 1st and focused on the Bulgarian IT and BPO sectors. The forum was opened by Mr. Traycho Traykov, Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism who emphasized that Bulgaria stands out in the region with its fiscal prudence and stability with government debt at only 16% of GDP.
Bulgaria has already established itself as a leading global destination in providing high-value added IT and BPO services due to its traditions in engineering and IT as well as language abilities. The country has become an R&D software development center for companies like SAP, Johnson Controls, VMWare and many others. Firms are attracted by the country’s available skilled labor force, flat tax rate of only 10%, the lowest in the EU, and overall low costs of doing business according to Borislav Stefanov, head of the InvestBulgaria Agency. The country is also one of six global delivery centers for HP, which hires more than 5,000 employees in its Sofia center. Sasha Bezuhanova, head of HP’s CEE Public Sector Director emphasized that HP uses Bulgaria as a testing ground for many innovative products, which HP then launched world-wide.  
Mr. Detlev Hoch, a Director at McKinsey & Co pointed to the potential of Bulgaria to become the Silicon Valley of the Black Sea.
The forum was attended by more than a 100 representatives of UK and international IT and BPO and professional services firms, Bulgarian professionals and government representatives. The discussions will also include representatives of the Bulgarian private sector who will present the benefits of investing in the country, as well as their successful experience in the recent years. Among the participating companies are HP, AII Data Processing, Nemetschek Bulgaria,  Telerik, Everbread, Sofica Group, Call Point New Europe, Melon, Netage Solutions и ISG technology, Colliers International, Wolf Theiss, Adecco Bulgaria.