Antoaneta Bares: The transport connections in the industrial area near Sofia is a priority for us
Providing good transport connections on the territory of the Industrial Zone Sofia- Bozhurishte is a priority for the National Company Industrial Zones PLC for this year, commented the executive director Antoaneta Bares at the conference, named ‘’Industrial building and investments 2018”.
Bares claimed that the extension of the roadway of Tzaritza Joanna Venue is an important condition for the development of the industrial zone located near Sofia. NCIZ has already send an application to the Invest Bulgaria Agency so that the zone in Bozhurishte to be certified as a priority project for 19 million leva. That will guarantee the support by the state for extension of that roadway, but it will require some changes to be made in relation to the city plan of Sofia.
“The policy of the Ministry of Economy regarding the industrial zones is to build infrastructure in the first place, because that will make the whole process and the work of the investors a lot easier’’, emphasized the Vice Minister of Economy Luchezar Borisov at the beginning of the forum. He added that the Ministry has given NCIZ the task to identify all of the necessary measures, that includes also the legislative ones, for regulating the work activity in the industrial zones.
In the meantime, the Vice Minister Borisov clarified that an interdepartmental work group has been formed, working on the problematic task - “Joining the networks of the technical infrastructure (electricity, gas and water supply), including deadlines, number of procedures and expenditure.
“The deadline of the tasks of the work group was until 4th January 2018. They included the following: examination of the legislation in the areas with access to electricity, gas and water supply; defining the procedures, the time framework and the expenditure of joining the business to the network supplying electricity, water and gas; offering certain changes in the legislation in those three sectors; offering new measures in relation to the reduction of the number of the procedures, the time and expenditure of the business by joining the technical infrastructure in the country, explained he.
Among the means stimulating the improvement of the business environment, the Vice Minister put the focus on the policy for diminishing the administrative weight as the Ministry of Economy is working towards solving that issue and there are already some obvious results: an improved economic climate in the country’’, confirmed he.
“The administrative weight in Bulgaria is an issue for the investors and for NCIZ itself, because by supporting them and their projects we face this problem as well. For example, if giving a permission for building takes usually a year, the investors expect from us to promise that such a permission would be received within 3 to 6 months’’, clarified the executive director of NCIZ.
Antoaneta Bares said that ‘’Industrial and logistic park- Burgas’’ is a project from the portfolio of NCIZ, which keeps being developed successfully because of the joint work between NCIZ and the Municipality of Burgas. There is a great interest in the industrial zone in the coastal city. Its territory is a build-up area and that is the reason why the park was extended with new terrains and its territory rose up to three times, clarified the executive director of NCIZ.
According to her words, the investors, who come in Bulgaria, have three main requirements: good location for their projects, infrastructure and available workforce.
The support of the education and its connection to business are the foundation of the project Fast Tracking Success for accelerated professional development of young people, who graduate university. Associates of the project are a great number of prestigious universities and at the end of the previous year the executive director Antoaneta Bares was awarded the prize ‘’Golden heart” for her socially responsible initiative.
The Vice Major of the Municipality of Burgas- Krasimir Stoichev attended the Forum ‘’Industrial building and investments 2018’’. He said that the main priority in Burgas is the building of new professional schools that will support the business with the necessary workforce.