The future industrial zone in Bozhurishte near Sofia, which is expected to be developed as Bulgarian-Chinese project, will be the site of the first ever high-technology park in Bulgaria, CEO of "National Company Industrial Zones" Kiril Nikolov told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).
In an exclusive interview for Novinite.com, Nikolov made it clear that the project for an industrial zone at Bozhurishte to be managed jointly by the governments of Bulgaria and China's Zhejiang province is well under way.
"Currently, we are refining a Master Plan for the establishment of the industrial zone. It will be located on a terrain of 191.4 hectares. Concurrently, we are investigating the options for connecting the internal infrastructures (electricity, water, gas, telecommunications, roads). We have a good idea how the project will be phased and we are fulfilling the important preliminary steps," said Nikolov, who heads Bulgaria's state-owned "National Company Industrial Zones" (NCIZ) set up in 2009 to facilitate the inflow of FDI in the country by offering industrial terrains to the foreign firms.
He explained that a certain part of the Bozhurishte zone will be managed jointly by the governments of Bulgaria and Zhejiang, while other sections of the development will be set aside to be offered directly to foreign companies.
"We expect to partner with businesses from China in two major ways. Firstly, it is the creation and management of a joint venture with a leading Chinese province – Zhejiang Province. This JV will operate a portion of the total plot in Bozhurishte and will offer industrial zone conditions to interested manufacturing firms from China and the world in general. Secondly, apart from the joint Bulgarian-Chinese park, we will develop additional industrial, logistical and high-technology capabilities on the territory of the larger plot and Chinese businesses can directly talk with us about how to become residents in the park," he told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).
Nikolov has been positive with respect to the interest on part of Chinese companies in the Bozhurishte Industrial Zone, a project first announced by the Bulgarian government in June 2010, amidst several months of intensive dialogue between Bulgaria and the Chinese government not just on industrial outsourcing and manufacturing but also on potential concessions of Bulgarian ports and airports as well as transport cooperation between China, Turkey and Bulgaria with respect to an Asia-Europe high-speed rail.
The NCIZ CEO points out that many Chinese firms with international operations are looking for the most cost effective approaches to further expand their businesses, and Bulgaria offers quite a few advantages in that respect.
In addition to being a major Bulgarian-Chinese project, the first of its scope, and to creating new jobs, however, the Bozhurishte Industrial Zone will have the potential to transform Bulgaria's economy in a new way- by hosting the first ever hi-tech park in the country.
Novinite
