15 Jul 2024
"The successful ranking of the project for the construction of the infrastructure of the Industrial Zone "Elenino" is to a large extent entirely the merit of the mayor of the Municipality of Stara Zagora, Zhivko Todorov - thanks to the organization, the team, the desire of the municipality." This was announced to the media this afternoon by the Minister of Innovation and Growth, Rosen Karadimov.
"This project is unquestionable as a surplus value and as a necessity! The industrial park will receive almost BGN 14 million in grant-in-aid, and the self-participation is between BGN 3 and 4 million," the acting minister announced. And he recalled that the park in Stara Zagora won in tough competition with prior bonification of the parks in Northern Bulgaria - it is laid down in the program itself that they already have a corresponding bonus at the start of the competition. "The Staro Zagora park is one of the three in Southern Bulgaria - together with those in Burgas and Sliven, and the importance of industrial parks for me is not up for debate, they are the locomotive of economic growth, the terrain to which investors should come", he further determined Minister Karadimov.
Mayor Zhivko Todorov, in turn, thanked that the ministry had approached it extremely correctly and had made a real and objective assessment of the projects, highlighting the best ones. One of them is the Zagore Industrial Zone project, which includes the Elenino grounds.
"When a potential investor comes to the Municipality of Stara Zagora, he first asks about the General Development Plan, detailed development plans, whether there is any built infrastructure, and when there is not, every investor realizes that it takes 2-3 years to move the documents. At the moment, we can say that with the implementation of this project, we will have a completely ready industrial zone, suitable for investors, including high-tech companies with high added value and serious volumes of activity", Zivko Todorov informed the journalists.
To explain the multiplier effect of industrial parks, the official minister gave the example of Hungary - an absolute hit for foreign investments. "One example that impressed me a lot, to understand the scale, is that only 1 investment of 1 plant in an industrial park is 10 billion dollars. And we are proud that Bulgaria has foreign direct investments for 7 billion BGN for the whole of 2023! The potential is huge, as well as Stara Zagora's chance, thanks to the mayor," Rosen Karadimov noted again.
The parks are due to open on January 1, 2026.
The parameters of the winning project were explained by the executive director of the Zagore Industrial Zone, Radoslav Tanev. They include the construction of a water supply and sewerage system from the roundabout of "Novotechprom" to the terrain of the old industrial zone, and along the way all the other plots available in the zone will be supplied. This route is 6.5 kilometers long, the project also includes a complete reconstruction of the road, not only repaving.
"While the project was being assessed, we managed to attract a large investor to one of the sites - it is an investment of BGN 240 million and over 800 jobs, the preliminary contract has been signed. At the same time, we are in advanced negotiations with a second investor, again high-tech and in the field of production," announced Radoslav Tanev.
If the two contracts are signed, half of the land near the village of Elenino will be occupied. That is why we are now thinking about the third stage of expansion of the "Zagore" Industrial Zone - and in general opinion, the most suitable terrain is the airport, the executive director said.
Regarding the airport, we are having talks with the Ministry of Economy, which are very fruitful, about the way in which the Municipality of Stara Zagora can acquire it, Mayor Zhivko Todorov added.
In response to a journalist's question, Radoslav Tanev explained that the aspiration is to look for investors in the field of production, because an old rule is that one job created in production creates between 3 and 5 jobs in the service field. In no case do I underestimate other sectors, logistics is also important in Stara Zagora, because we are in the center of the country, summed up the executive director.
"The meaning is the jobs created, the amount of investments that will be made in the city and this is the direct effect for the people of Stara Zagora! This is the only way for us to be competitive with the rest of the European countries by constantly raising the standard of living through investments", concluded Mayor Zhivko Todorov on the subject.
