Borislav Stefanov, Executive Director of the InvestBulgaria Agency, told journalists on Thursday that foreign investments will total about 2,000 million euro this year. He added that this was his personal view.

Stefanov made this forecast at a news conference about the November 24-25 Bulgarian Economic Forum (BEF) in Sofia.

BEF Chairman Georgi Tabakov said the promising sectors for investment in the coming years were green industry and broadband access.

Stefanov quoted National Bank figures showing that investments in Bulgaria in the first seven months of 2010 stood at over 700 million euro, as against 2,000 million euro a year earlier.

The following sectors attracted the bulk of foreign investments: real estate about 200 million euro, the production and processing of oil products and the chemical industry as a whole, energy and construction.

Stefanov said that the Netherlands is the number one investor, with the qualification that investments are attributed to the last country from which the investment has entered Bulgaria.

As a result of a BEF project trying to attract investment in Northwestern Bulgaria which has so far been the least attractive for investors, foreign investors will have on-line access to information about the advantages of this part of the country, said Tabakov. By way of example, Tabakov said that only three out of a total of over 400 Italian companies are investing in this region.

The project also aims to train the local administrations work with foreign investors.

Source: BTA