Buy & Sell Bulgaria Insight Newsletter

The Sofia Weekly

An exhibition dedicated to the Cyrillic Alphabet was open by Bulgarian Socialist Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The exhibition, which was organized at the initiative of Bulgarian MEP from Atanas Paparizov, attracted the interest of the European deputies. Its opening was preceded by a lecture and a discussion on the topic “Multilinguism and Inter-Cultural Dialogue - Cyrillic Alphabet’s Message to Europe”.

The leader of the Party of European Socialists group in EP Martin Schulz was a special guest at the ceremony. “The contribution of the Cyrillic alphabet to the cultural diversity and inter-cultural dialogue of Europe, and to the European linguistic heritage, is especially important”, Schulz said.

The thirty pictures - one for each letter in the Bulgarian alphabet - will be exhibited at the ASP Building of the European Parliament.

www.News.Dnevnik.BG

Source: NSI /Graphics: Dnevnik

The Bulgarian economy expanded 6.2% in 2007 which in nominal terms translates to 56.52 billion BGN or 28.898 billion EUR, preliminary data of the central bank showed on Monday. This is the fourth year on the trot that the Bulgarian economy has grown by an annual margin larger than 6%. GDP per capita was reported at 3,735.5 EUR.

Q4 2007 economic growth was clocked at 6.9% over the year-ago period, a spurt that was made up for the softer growth patch in Q3 when the farming sector contracted sharply.

The GDP numbers surprised most analysts who were betting for a showing of 5.5% to 6%, mainly due to concerns about the reserved prognosis of the economic performance in the last quarter. The government had projected a Q4 rate of 6.4%. The pleasing GDP metrics were mainly due to strong domestic consumption and solid industrial growth in 2007.

The GDP share of industrial manufacture jumped 14% to 26.5%. The biggest growth contribution came from the processing industry (+15.4%), construction (+16.9%) and production of electricity and heating energy (+17.2%). The only decliner in terms of value added contribution to the economy last year was the mining industry.

The services industry posted a growth of 7.5%, increasing its share of GDP to 50%. Within the sector, the top performers were financial services (+34%), hotels and restaurants (+11.8), commercial intermediation (+6.6%). Transportation and telecommunications turned in a growth rate of 4.3%.

The farming industry, battered by inclement weather conditions, posted a record decline of 30% in 2007 with its GDP share shrinking to 5.1%.

The central bank also restated the 2006 GDP figure to 6.3% from 6.1% after receiving additional data form the customs administration, the balance of payments and others.

By News.Bg

Bulgaria will be a sole-owner in the new company „Golf-development“. This became obvious after a conference of the Council of Ministers.

The Government decided to set up a Single Person Joint Stock Company with 100% State participation in the capital. It will be involved in designing, construction, exploitation and management of golf complexes. They will include golf courses, service buildings and equipment, settlements, etc.

The capital of the company will be 9 183 000 Bulgarian levs, allocated into 9 183 nominal shares of 1 000 levs each. 12 estates, which are private-state properties, will be included in the capital of the company as an un-monetary installment. Their value is 9 133 000 levs.

The monetary installment of 50 000 levs will be secured by restructuring the costs of this year’s Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works’s budget.

Bulgaria is aiming to become a competitive golf destination, attractive for the solvent tourists. As an alternative to the over construction and the high-floor building in the Black Sea holiday resorts, the construction of golf courses will be stimulated. Thus, conditions for extending the tourist season will be created - 9 months on the Black Sea coast and year-round in the mountain complexes, having available ski-golf destinations, as there are in Austria and Switzerland.

The golf tourism is one of the most profitable ones all over the world and combined with the friendly climate and the natural sites, Bulgaria could be a preferred destination on the Balkans.

The company will be managed by a three-member Board of Managers, whose mandate will be three years.

March 3, Bulgaria’s national holiday, symbolises the restoration of the third Bulgarian kingdom after almost 500 years of Ottoman rule. The treaty of San Stefano, signed on March 3 1878, was the milestone of this process and the day remains one of the most celebrated in Bulgaria’s history. The San Stefano treaty ended the Russian-Turkish war, which started in 1877.

In August 1877, a battalion of Russian troops and Bulgarian volunteers miraculously managed to defend the pass from the powerful army of Suleiman Pasha, which was attacking from the south. Despite their numerical superiority, the Turks suffered a catastrophic defeat, while the defenders of Shipka worked miracles of bravery. At periods of complete despair and lack of ammunition, the defenders of the pass threw stones, tree trunks and the bodies of killed soldiers against the enemy. A Russian detachment arrived just in time, providing crucial psychological support to the defenders. They counterattacked and sent the enemy running.

The Shipka battles became known to the world. Foreign reporters informed millions of readers about the course of the war. After Shipka, successful operations followed in Pleven, Sofia, Plovdiv and Shipka-Sheinovo and at the end, the Turkish command asked for peace.

On March 3 1878 in San Stefano, a village near Istanbul now called Yesilkoy, Turkey signed a preliminary peace treaty. Under this treaty the Bulgarian ethnic territories in Macedonia, Moesia and Thrace were liberated, and the Bulgarian state was restored after almost five centuries of Ottoman rule.

Shipka Monument

Baba (Grandma) Marta is one of the most observed traditions, and marks the end of winter & the beginning of spring. In the North, the winter seasons are personalised as a family of two brothers Golyam Sechko (Big Axe — January) and Malak Sechko (Small Axe — February) who wreak havoc in people’s lives by stopping all normal activities. Their grandma Marta is known to have a rather volatile temper — laughing one day (and then it’s sunny & warm) and fuming & angry the next (cloudy & cold). On 1 March everyone wears a ‘martenica’. The traditional martenica is a bracelet made of interlaced red and white cotton/wool strands. “Red & white” is the traditional desciption of a healthy person, red is for rosy cheeks, white is for unblemished skin. So by giving you a martenica, people wish you health and prosperity. An interesting note is that in BG psyche health & prosperity are the two sides of the same thing; you can’t have prosperity without health. There are many popular shapes of martenici as two cherries or a man and a woman (called Pizho and Penda respectively), while kids wear plastic figurines that have red and white strands. You do not buy yourself one, you receive from & give to other people (family, friends, colleagues and neighbours), and end up with a lot of bracelets & lapel buttons. The tradition says we should wear them until we see a stork (as a migrating bird, this is the true sign the weather has turned). Undoubtedly, the child delivering fame of the stork plays a role in its selection (the allusion of children as the new spring in the life cycle). Once you see a stork, you tie your martenica to a fruit tree (again, the perpetuation of the idea of harvest & riches). More practically, we wear martenici until about 1 April. This is a unique custom. If you see a person with martenica, he/she is either Bulgarian or received it from a Bulgarian. Ask them!

Name day for: Atanas, Atanaska (like our Atanas, night guard at Buy & Sell Bulgaria’s office, who also has a birthday). Happy Name day Nasko and Many Happy Returns!

On January 18 the Orthodox Church honors St. Atanasii The Great, who lived from 293/ 298 until 373. Atanas’s Day is a holiday connected with the New Year’s rites. According to the Christian beliefs St. Atanas is the ruler of snow and ice. Dressed in a silk shirt he ascends the mountain riding his white horse and exclaims: “Go away, winter, come again, summer!” That’s why this holiday is also known as the Mid-winter. Atanas’s Day is a holiday of the blacksmiths, ironmongers, cutters and shoeing smiths as well as a holiday of the illnesses. This day is observed to show respect to the pest and other contagious diseases, which are called with the taboo name “sweet and honey ones”. The winter Day of St. Athanasius is also known as Midwinter or the Pest’s Day. The second name is connected with the belief that the pest was born at that time. After the Day of St. Athanasius healers went to the villages to exterminate people. Therefore early in the morning each woman would bake a small flat loaf of bread and three small ring-shaped buns. The flat bread is decorated with two dogs, who are keeping the people from the pest.

On this day, Mr. Christopher Violaris, Managing Director of Buy & Sell Bulgaria, invited the Bishop of Varna, Kiril, to bless all offices of Eurolink Investment Group and its people, as well as partners and clients. Bishop Kiril wished us health and wellbeing and sprinkled holy water over our heads, as we kissed the Cross. He beseeched us to be good and do good and not just expect to receive and gain. God bless us all.

By Andrew Regan
Property Talk

Twenty years ago, few Brits would have been able to find Bulgaria on a map, let alone tell you anything about the country. Today, hundreds of Brits own property there and thousands more visit this Balkan gem every year.

Bulgaria has undergone an investment revolution over the last decade, meaning that property buyers looking for a good return and a holiday home are very keen to purchase in this former Communist state.

But what makes Bulgaria so attractive to investors; after all, isn’t it possible to find similarly priced property in other Balkan countries such as Romania, Croatia and Serbia? Well, Bulgaria has led the way by building a number of high quality residential complexes that are available at low prices, in areas that are very attractive to tourists.

Bulgaria has become more and more established as a tourist destination for the Brits; both in the summer, for the black sea resort coastal regions which have a Mediterranean like temperature and beaches and internationally renowned golf courses; and also as a winter destination to the mountain regions of the Pirin, Rila and Rhodopa which offer skiing from 2000-2500 m and have a ski season that lasts from December to May. Bulgaria also has an enviable stretch of coastline along the Black Sea which attracts both holidaymakers and those looking to buy property in Bulgaria alike.

Cheap flights have also assisted Bulgaria’s rise in popularity, creating a quick, easy and affordable route for Brits. Demand for real estate is also coming from the increasing number of international buyers who are working for multinationals in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia. This demand is helping to push up the design and build quality of new developments in the city.

As a well-marketed holiday destination with increasing tourist numbers for both winter and summer seasons, newly built infrastructure and cheap, quick connections to the UK, it’s no wonder that Bulgaria leads the Balkans by offering one of the best property investments in Europe.

Property prices in Bulgaria rose faster than anywhere else in the world in 2007, according to a survey conducted by a leading British estate agency.

The European Union’s newest member topped the latest Knight Frank Global Price Index with an annualised property price growth of 30.6 %. Bulgaria ranked three percentage points above the south-east Asian economic powerhouse of Singapore.

“Despite numerous concerns over the level of oversupply in a number of locations within Bulgaria - notably the winter ski resort of Bansko and selected coastal resort locations - Bulgaria has supplanted the previously top performing Baltic hotspot at the top of the Knight Frank league,” the report declared.

Last year, the highest ranking country was Latvia, which saw property price growth of 56.9 %. However, this dropped in 2007 to 10.9 %, on concerns about overpricing in the Latvian capital, Riga.

By 2009 Hollywood will screen a movie telling the story of the Bulgarian medics who spent eight years in Lybia’s jails, producers announced in Sofia. At a press conference, Richard Harding and Sam Feuer from Sixth Sense Productions said the movie’s initial title is The Benghazi Six. The top producers added that the script is to be written in 2008 and will center on the love story between doctor Zdravko Georgiev and the nurse Christiana Valcheva thrown in jail during a controversial AIDS trial.

The movie is going to be shot mainly in Sofia but the cast is not clear yet. Harding said he hopes stars like Angelina Jolie, Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchet to play some of the main characters.

The six Bulgarian medics were present at the conference and said they will help the producers to create a reliable story.

“We were deeply moved by the story of these wonderful people and their unity during the times of hardship,” Harding said. The Hollywood producers refused to announce the budget of the new film but said it will be much bigger than the budget of the historical drama Hotel Rwanda that they produced in 2004 and for which USD 18 M was spent.

Richard Payne
BA(Hon), CEng, MIET
Director of EnergyFree Technology

While preparing for relocation from UK to Bulgaria, I considered worthwhile to include my 42” HD-Ready Plasma TV into a shipping package. This TV features SCART and HDMI interface, a standardised connection between TV equipments for the majority of the country.

On arrival, I installed the TV in my apartment with an ordinary rooftop TV aerial and hey presto, I have Bulgarian TV, about 65 channels!

But when I turn on the sound all channels came out with a hissing sound. Hmmm!? What went wrong?

My good friend Mario who worked in a TV shop in Malta and pops in for a visit suggested that the Bulgarian TV broadcast sound is not compatible with the UK’s TV and can only be fixed by a hardware modification. From my comprehensive experience with electronics, it would be a difficult job.

Rather than fixing the Plasma TV, I decided to buy a DVD-RW recorder which comes with aerial input and is compatible with the Bulgarian TV broadcast. After shopping around, I bought a Samsung DVD-RW recorder with HDMI at a special price 230 BGN (€115) with a free 10 disc set of DVD-R, from a large store.

Using an HDMI connection (dedicated connection for the HD technology), it worked like a dream and I enjoyed VH-1 pop channel, I’m very pleased to see my favourite pop video - Vienna from Ultrafox! I made a test again with a SCART connection and again it worked well including the audio. I’m very pleased with the results. I can confirm there are several English channels, including CNN, but no UK channels (i.e. BBC).

Nikulden is “The Day of Saint Nikolas” - a great winter festival celebrated by all Bulgarians on December Sixth. It is the name day for everyone named Nikola, Nikolay, Kolyo, Nikolina, Neno, Nenka, Nikolina or Nina.

Saint Nikolas is believed to help all the sailors and fishermen. Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor”, Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. Not only is he the patron of sailors and voyagers, he is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need. St. Nicholas is also the patron and protector of children.

He is the master of the entire submarine realm - fish and water demons - as well as the sea winds. The autumn fishing season ends on this day. The day’s catch is to be offered to the saint. Fishermen eat the first fish caught right on the shore, before bringing the rest home.

The traditional Nikulden meal in each household is based upon a fish dish - “ribnik” - a carp in dough, which is traditional for the holiday. There are also two special loaves of bread. The food is blessed at church or at home before being served. After wafting incense over the food, the host raises the bread high, and breaks it in half. One half he keeps, the other is left on the table. It is on Saint Nikolas’ Day that the table is open to all guests and is not cleared before the day is over. On this holiday - relatives, sponsors and neighbours are invited and a big table is sanctified; the feast day ending up in songs and fun.

By Christopher Violaris,
Managing Director of Eurolink Investment Group

What looked as an impossible dream ten years ago, the economic recovery, the political stability and the rule of law in Bulgaria, today is an undisputed fact! An achievement that took other countries more than a few decades to reach, very often at a high cost and after the introduction of severe austerity measures.

Today, Bulgaria is well on the way to development and recovery, something that is obvious everywhere you go and everywhere you look. The EU membership has played a decisive role in getting the Bulgarian Authorities to put the criminal bands under control, to make the streets safe, to clean up the public sector from corrupted officials, to get the Banking sector to work properly at last, to get the judiciary to function and make its presence felt and finally push the country ahead!

Bulgaria is a great place to live, bring up a family and do business. It is defiantly a great place to invest your money and your life savings, but you should remember one thing, not everything that shines is gold!

The recent ‘writings’ on the wall can only cause concern and teach future investors to be very careful as to how and where they invest their money! A lot of people, in their attempt to make money out of the “property boom” in Bulgaria, have suffered serious losses and a good number of them have actually lost their money! Why and how you may ask.

READ MORE »

“Dental tourism” is an increasing trend with more and more Brits, who combine a holiday to Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast with a visit to the dentist. Bulgaria, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Thailand are cashing in from a growing number of Brits who cannot get treatment on the NHS, or cannot afford to pay huge bills for going private, the Finance Market online edition reported.

The medical search engine, revahealthnetwork.com, has revealed that 35,000 Brits a year travel overseas for dental work and nearly 60,000 searched online for information on dentists. The company declared that the British can save up to 70% by travelling overseas for dental treatment - before accommodation and flights are taken into account.

Bulgaria is a preferred destination due to the low-cost, high-quality dental care. Prices that local dentists charge are about seven times lower than those in Great Britain.

Reviewed by Diana Georgieva

Q: What is the best way to transfer money to Bulgaria?

A: When buying property overseas you need to cope with complex bank transfers that usually take a few days to arrive into the recipient’s bank account and in addition you are charged considerable fees for it. Furthermore, it is not always possible to do the transfer in pounds – you are more likely to be paying for your property in Euros, or some other currency as well.

Now, to appease the concerns of clients who are new to the foreign exchange process here comes a new service, offered by Eurolink Finance, in association with Globex Foreign Exchange. It guarantees that our clients get the best exchange rates and provides personalized service so as they know exactly where they stand through the entire funds transfer process. Not only we will provide you with the best rates for FX transfers, but we will also offer faster transfers and free WIRE transfer of funds to the beneficiary account.

For more information please send your questions to: diana@eurolink-finance.com

The British national Patrick John Brown will be the leader of the list for municipal councillors in the Bulgarian village of Avren on the upcoming local elections on October 28. Brown was nominated by the Bulgarian labour and agriculture party, which is in coalition with the United National Front. The 59-year-old Patrick Brown has been living in Avren for four years with his wife Caroline. While in Britain he has worked in a shipyard. He wanted to join the list for municipal councillors to defend the interests of the British community in Avren.

Avren is the biggest village in the Varna county on the Black Sea and has become the home of around 40 British families.

Kamchia River, by the village of Avren

Foreign tourists have to pay huge sums for getting medical aid in Bulgaria’s seaside resorts unlike the Bulgarian nationals. Medical services fees for foreigners are up to six times higher than those paid by the Bulgarians. The fees for medical examinations and general checks in the resorts of Tsarevo, Primorsko and Sozopol are extremely increased in spite of the law adopted in 2005, which provides for equal prices for Bulgarians and foreign citizens in the tourism branch.

Bulgaria’s Health Ministry has not yet issued a decree that would regulate the price formation of the medical services. Until such a document is officially published, the people concerned could complain to the EU’s Consumers Rights Commission, headed by the Bulgarian commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

Autumn has finally come in Bulgaria on Sunday, 23 Sep, at 12:51 local time, putting an end to a dry and hot summer.

Despite the cold weather that marked the past several days before the official start of the autumn, the people on Sunday were surprised by welcoming sun and moderately hot temperatures.

This year the astronomical autumn in Bulgaria does not coincide with the autumnal equinox.

By Christopher Violaris, BSc, MSc, PhD ( Econ)
Chairman and C.E.O of Eurolink Investment Group

You may ask, what is the best way and where should somebody invest. We are listing below some facts that will allow you to draw your own conclusions:

What is the future of your investment in Bulgaria?

Once again the answer to this question is complex and depends on a lot of factors! Generally, all investments will deliver profits and dividends, some more and some less, though there will be a good number of the so-called “investors” who will be totally disappointed, even lose their money! As you know not everything that shines is gold and not every “purchase in Bulgaria” will make you rich and we will explain what we mean:

1 - The loser: Those of you, that bought properties in remote areas, uninhabited villages, or villages with gipsy population, land and plots that have no access to electricity or water or where the network is not extensive enough to sustain additional construction, I am afraid that you are in for a very long “wait” in the best case or losing your money in the worst case.

2 - The “moderate” winner: Those of you, that bought apartments on the South Coast or on the Ski resorts, with the assurance and “guarantee” of a rental income, should have by now realized that you made a mistake and the “myth” of the rental income does not represent reality. In fact it will take years until the hotel rooms are filled by the tour operators in a way that your apartments can offer themselves as an alternative to hotels. It is important to underline here that 92% of the tourists coming to Bulgaria every year, come on a “package tour” that includes tickets and hotels. On the contrary, those of you who bought apartments in Sofia, Varna region and in other major towns, you stand a very good chance of receiving a decent rental income and have some returns from your investment. In a long term, the prices of apartments will go up and you should expect, depending on the location of your apartment, a moderate profit (7-10% per annum).

3 - The “money maker”: The real money maker is definitely Land and Plots! Those who were wise enough to put their money on land and plots, already know that they are in for a “kill”! If somebody goes back a few years and compare the prices of land then with those of today, he will realize that we have an average increase of 68% per annum, especially those who bought prime land at prime and popular locations can expect some impressive price increase and investment return in the near future! Demand for land is not only growing by an average of 32% per annum, but it is also widening in its form and it covers now the commercial as well as the agricultural sectors. We have for example parties interested in land for warehousing and distribution, for commercial and medical centers, scuba diving schools, summer language schools, etc. Our advice to you is very simple, if you want a SAFE, HIGHLY PROFITABLE without any headaches investment, INVEST ON LAND! Remember our words!

Provided by Richard Payne

Here are some useful tips:

(a) If the car is less than perhaps £1500, maybe it is best to sell it and buy another car in Varna, considering the cost of shipping and re-registering a UK car. Around Varna, there are a lot of new car shops and 2nd hand car supermarket zones (essentially no difference to UK prices). Furthermore, the car in UK is right handed while in Bulgaria they are left handed. It is a good idea to hire a bulgarian friend to do the negotiation for you, so you may get 20% lower price than yourself. If you’re not sure about the paperwork, your friend can help you.

(b) Shipping to Bulgaria, they consider quotation primary on shipping volume, not weight. Smaller volume (20m3 versa 10m3) reduce the cost and hence 20% VAT surcharge.

(c) Since the furnish items take a lot of volume (ie draw units), it may be a lot cheaper to dispose them (ie ebay, charity, etc) and buy new furniture. For example cheap MFI bedroom draw unit cost £50 to buy, but may cost £50-£150 to ship it, where you may sell it for £10 and buy new one. Take what you really need and be crucial about it. When you start living in Varna or the region, there is plenty of good furniture stores around there. There is Ikea in Romina not far from the Bulgarian border if you like Swedish style and you can hire a large transit.

(d) Do communicate with the shipping company, do not pre-assume there is complete understanding, the shipping company would be very concerned how to deliver the goods when they get to Varna…they may use a very big lorry, which cannot drive into small streets (which in fact is impossible). You may need to hire a transit or large SUV car to transport the goods between the main road and house/apartment on the small street, they may do that for you but at extra cost.

(e) Do try to pack way ahead of schedule, so you can work out the shipping volume, making sure it does not exceed the contract limits.

(f) Do consider insurance, so your stuff would be protected. The company may have a policy that they perfer to pack the stuff themsleves (at extra cost) and hence validate the insurance policy…..read the small print. They may use a good money making scheme.

(g) Each box must comply to weight specification provided by the shipping company, if it is too heavy, they may refuse to handle it due to H&S policy.

Above all…do communicate with the people at the shipping company, do not pre-assume, keep communication on records, any charge:- record it on writing, approved and signed!!. See you in Varna!

The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor were freed to leave Libya in the dark hours of Tuesday, 24th Aug, and landed in Sofia around 10.30 am. Krisiyana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka, Snezhana Dimitrova and Ashraf Al-Hadjudj got on the aircraft of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and took off from the Libya airport around 3 am local time. Their relatives, the Bulgarian media, state officials and Sofia citizens gathered at the Sofia Airport to meet the six.

EU’s External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the French first lady who led the two-day tough talks with Libyan leader Muammar Quadaffi also arrived in Bulgaria.

The medics were allowed to spend their life imprisonment sentences in Bulgaria after Libya demanded Monday stability in its relations with all EU member states. The other demands of the North African country are connected to the guarantees the EU should give concerning the treatment of the HIV infected Libyan children. Besides that, Libya insists on developing some economic projects on its territory. Among them are the constructions of a modern highway, which is to connect the border with Tunis with the Egypt’s one as well as a railway between some Libyan ports and African cities.

The six medical staff, who have been imprisoned since 1999, have been convicted of deliberately infecting 460 children with HIV at the Benghazi hospital and were twice sentenced to death. Last week the Libyan authorities commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, a move many Europeans and Bulgarians believed is a prelude to transferring the medics to Bulgaria.

READ MORE »