{"id":13476,"date":"2017-09-27T08:12:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T08:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sr-management.bg\/smart-city-near-sofia\/"},"modified":"2017-09-27T08:12:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T08:12:26","slug":"smart-city-near-sofia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sr-management.bg\/he\/smart-city-near-sofia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria Backs New Chinese \u2018Smart City\u2019 Near Sofia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saint Sofia project, a huge, high-tech\u00a0entertainment, retail, hotel and office complex funded by Chinese money, is expected to be built near Bulgaria\u2019s capital over a three-year period.<\/strong> <\/span><\/h2>\n

The large-scale Saint Sofia development<\/strong>, initially announced in 2014, has been granted the status of priority investment project and will benefit from a number of state-guaranteed incentives for a three-year-project, the state-controlled Invest Bulgaria Agency told BIRN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This was made possible after the coalition government, led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov adopted a package of measures on August 2 intended to aid the project which is being implemented by Chinese-owned company Bulgarian Development Holdings Limited, BDHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the project will be realised in the next three years,\u201d a spokesperson for Invest Bulgaria told BIRN.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The massive project, which is still at an early stage, foresees the construction of a tourist and entertainment complex which would include hotels with casinos, an aquapark, conference halls, a shopping mall, offices, green spaces and other facilities near the town of Elin Pelin.<\/p>\n

The total amount of investment is planned to reach 1.59 billion leva (around 750 million euros), creating 1,850 new jobs, the government said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The grand project, dubbed \u201cthe Bulgarian Las Vegas\u201d by the media, was first announced and granted priority investment status in 2014.<\/p>\n

According to the Bulgarian Investment Promotion Act, priority investments benefit from a number of state-granted incentives, including shorter administrative procedures, easier acquisitions of properties, state aid for investments in production and science, concessions for labour costs.<\/p>\n

But after the initial announcement of the Saint Sofia project in 2014, no serious progress was made towards building it.<\/p>\n

In May, however,\u00a0China Daily\u00a0reported that the project was presented in Beijing as a future high-tech innovation which will be pushed through as a part of China\u2019s ambitious\u00a0Belt and Road Initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Belt and Road aims to expand Beijing\u2019s international influence and trade abroad in order to compensate for the slowdown in economic growth at home.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the plan is a modern transport, trade and economic corridor running from Shanghai to Berlin, via Eastern and Central Europe, alongside the \u2018Maritime Silk Road\u2019, a sea route connecting China, South-East Asia, Oceania and North Africa.<\/p>\n

BDHL also announced in May that another key investor had joined the project \u2013 the leading Chinese telecom company ZTE, through its subsidiary ZTEICT.<\/p>\n

“Because we shared a similar vision of embracing technology, we decided to work together to build a smart entertainment and commercial complex, making Project Saint Sofia the first ever corporate-led smart city project in Europe,” BDHL\u2019s vice-president Albert Hung Chao Hong said, according to China Daily.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria\u2019s economic relations with China have developed significantly over the past decade, with the Bulgarian exports growing more than sixfold during the period 2006-2016, to $480 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The country imported Chinese goods worth over $1.1 billion last year, national statistics show.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.balkaninsight.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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