Antoaneta Bares, the Executive Director of NCIZ: “We are about to expand the industrial zones”
Bulgaria has all that is needed for large companies such as Volkswagen, for example, to invest in our country and produce a final product. This was the response of Antoaneta Bares to a question about the decision of the German concern not to invest in our country. The Executive Director of the NCIZ was a guest of Darik Radio.
The National Company Industrial Zones is heading for expansion with new industrial zones in Simitli, Lovech and Varna," Mrs. Bares explained. According to her, businesses begin to form clusters. "Businesses and their subcontractors gather to operate in one place, in one area. They mutually share products, as well as the same logistics. So-called shared infrastructure is being built," said Antoaneta Bares.
The NCIZ’s Executive Director spoke about the company's Fast-tracking Success project. Its aim is to accelerate professional development of young staff from universities and vocational high schools by providing permanent employment and internships in foreign companies in industrial zones. Mrs. Bares noted that the Fast-tracking Success project entered the shortlist of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2019, organized by the European Commission. The initiative is ranked in the top three of the finals, which took place in Helsinki, Finland.
“We are also preparing a law on industrial zones, because some issues have not been regulated yet,” Antoaneta Bares said. "We've been working on the preparation of such law all year. We have an almost final version, some clarifications have to be done," explained the Executive Director of the NCIZ. “Part of our proposals is as follows: a separation of the plots with a possibility the infrastructure to remain property of the company that owns the zone. Still, participations in various funding activities should be regulated as well: receiving state aids, taxes and fees that are levied on businesses operating in such a zone," said Mrs. Bares.
“Sofia-Bozhurishte Economic Zone” is our most developed zone. We also started to build the infrastructure of our zone in Stara Zagora last autumn,” Antoaneta Bares complemented. “Each municipality could develop own industrial zone”, she said. “We start working with a municipality on a project only if there is an investment interest stated. We could provide an extensive knowledge of good practices,” Mrs. Bares concluded addressing to Kiril Valchev, a presenter of the “The week” program.