Italy is among the biggest investors in Bulgaria with nearly 2 billion euro of foreign direct investments.

Bulgaria has a great potential for business with Italian companies. This was said by Levon Hampatzoumian, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit Bulbank, during the economic forum "Entrepreneurial Mission in Bulgaria" - "Technologies for Agro-Industry, Machine Building and Infrastructures", organized by the ICE Agency in cooperation with Confindustria and Unioncamere, under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Italy.

The trade between Bulgaria and Italy amounts to over 4 billion euro. At the same time the companies with Italian capital that are operating on Bulgarian territory are 1,000 with nearly 25,000 employees. Italy is among the biggest investors in Bulgaria with nearly 2 billion euro of foreign direct investments.

According to Levon Hampartzoumian, the improvement of the macroeconomic indicators in the last year makes our country attractive for the foreign investors.

A significant role for the recovery of the Bulgarian economy plays also the current improvement of the levels of EU funds utilization, which reached 85% as at July and this is especially encouraging considering the rather weak start of the process. In comparison, during the first four years Bulgaria managed to appropriate merely 15.6% of the total allocated amount.

"Traditionally industry is the backbone of the Bulgarian economy and the expectations are that this will remain so in the long term. To date 30,000 companies in the country generate about 15% of the gross value added of the country and provide jobs for 22% of the employed Bulgarians", Giacomo Austin, CIB&PB Projects Coordination Expert in UniCredit Bulbank, said.

For example, one of the key drivers of growth at the moment is the manufacture of parts for the automotive sector, which for only a few years has generated revenues of 1 billion euro and the number of jobs has exceeded 30 thousand.

In Giacomo Austin's words, the resources in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria are not used efficiently. Yet, he notes that the investments have been growing in recent years.

"As a whole the export per capita in Bulgaria is below the CEE average, which clearly shows the potential for growth in all sectors of the economy", Giacomo Austin added. The recommendations to our country, however, are for reduction of the bureaucracy and corruption in the state administration.

During the economic forum Aldo Andreoni, Special Origination Manager in Corporate and Investment Banking and Private Banking at UniCredit Bulbank, concluded that, as regards the foreign investors' interest, Bulgaria has once again reached the levels of before the crisis. He added that our country has many advantages when it comes to attracting of foreign investments, among which are the good tax policy, the low labour cost and energy price, and he recommended to the business to make the most of these.

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Viktoria Blajeva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Magdalena Ivanova, Phone: + 359 2 9232 528, nbhebmfob/jwbopwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch