For the 30th time, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) presented its Annual Awards. At an official ceremony at the Sofia Balkan Palace Hotel, the Chamber awarded companies, ambassadors, trade representatives, media, and journalists for their best practices and results achieved during the year. The Chairman of the Parliament Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and the President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov greeted the award winners. Among the guests were company executives, politicians, and diplomats. At the invitation of the organizers, the official ceremony was attended by our Chief Executive Officer Ph.D. Maria Hristova and Victor Gusev, Head of Investment Analysis Department at Invest Sofia.
The companies in the BCCI’s Top 100 Ranking were rewarded for their good business practices, the ambassadors and trade representatives – for their contribution to the development of diplomatic and economic relations between Bulgaria and their countries, and the media and journalists – for objective coverage of the positions of the Chamber and its members on hot economic issues and role of the Chamber in finding the best solutions.
In the subcategories of the “Top 100 Enterprises” the awards went to A1 Bulgaria EAD, Geotechmin Ltd, AES-3C Maritza East 1, Telink Business Services Group AD, and Iskar Services EOOD. In the category “Branch Organizations – for contribution to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the BCCI” the award was presented to the Bulgarian Association of Labour, Health, Safety. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Vratsa received recognition in the category “Regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry”.
The statuette in the category “Trade Representative” was awarded to Dimitrios Michas, Minister Plenipotentiary for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Embassy of Greece in Bulgaria. Our southern neighbour country has been Bulgaria’s second largest trading partner for the past two years. Giuseppina Dzara, Ambassador of Italy to Bulgaria, was awarded for her services to the development of economic relations between the two countries and for her contribution to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the BCCI. According to data for the first half of 2023 Italy is the third trading partner for our country, with more than 14,000 enterprises with Italian participation, mostly small and medium-sized companies. This number is growing with nearly 1,000 new companies every year.
In the Media category, BNT was awarded for its dissemination of objective information on the role of BCCI and its members on economic issues. In the “Journalist” category, Lora Indzhova from Nova TV received an award.