Bulgaria places seventh among 141 countries world-wide in terms of inward foreign direct investment (as a share of GDP) in 2006, according to the World Investment Report 2007 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The report was presented here by the leader of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, Ivo Prokopiev.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria last year stood at 5,172 million dollars, adding up to 20,700 million since 1990, BTA reports.

In the inward FDI rankings, Bulgaria comes after Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Suriname, Iceland, Singapore and Malta. It is third among the EU countries and second among the countries of Eastern Europe - following the unchallenged frontrunner Estonia.

The factors that have contributed to this result include Bulgaria's accession to the EU and the successful private-sector structural reforms, Prokopiev said adding that reforms in the public sector are yet to come.

In Bulgaria, some 95 per cent of the foreign investment is in greenfield projects, said Dimiter Nikolov of the InvestBulgaria Agency. He added that Bulgaria has attracted some 20 per cent of the investment in Southeast Europe and 286 greenfield investment projects out of a total of 784 in the region and 11,813 world-wide.