Sofia is Shortlisted for the Emerging Europe Awards in the City FDI Promotion Strategy of the Year Category

Sofia is among the 10 shortlisted cities nominated for the Emerging Europe Awards in the category City FDI Promotion Strategy of the Year. London-based think tank company Emerging Europe is organizing the Emerging Europe Awards to acknowledge local authorities and businesses and their success stories, leading projects and best practice across all 23 countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – the so-called Emerging Europe region.

For the last several years, the region has been developing much faster than Western Europe and it is a significant growth engine of the economy on the continent. Emerging Europe’s awards aim to foster economic and social growth in the CEE region and to attract investments and entrepreneurs from across Europe and the rest of the world.

The entry was prepared and submitted by Sofia Investment Agency and it successfully passed the first stage of the application process, where applications from all 23 CEE countries were assessed by Emerging Europe experts. Ten nominees were chosen to go forward to the second round. At this second stage, the ten nominated cities will be assessed by juries made up of professionals from inside and outside emerging Europe, who will choose their top three nominees in an online assessment. The winner will be announced at the Emerging Europe Awards Ceremony in the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development headquarters in London on June 22.

The City FDI Promotion Strategy of the Year category assesses the strategies of municipal investment promotion departments or agencies, evaluating their creativity, effectiveness and success. Plovdiv is the other Bulgarian city nominated in this category, and Invest Bulgaria Agency is nominated in the National Investment Promotion Agency of the Year category.

Emerging Europe Awards presents awards in 11 different categories, including Tourism Campaign of the Year, Young Empowerment Initiative of the Year, Equality-Friendly Initiative of the Year, Research & Development Programme of the Year, Social Impact Start-Up of the Year, FDI Project of the Year, Lifetime Achievement.

For all categories except National Investment Promotion Agency of the Year and Lifetime Achievement, the winners will be chosen by a jury of high-level professionals inside and outside the CEE region. Jury members vote electronically and anonymously by sending their choices directly to the Auditor. Emerging Europe is not involved in this process and is only informed of the winners. The organization will publish the list of jury members on its website in days.