{"id":5192,"date":"2017-02-17T09:30:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2017-02-24T13:33:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T11:33:32","slug":"sofia-attracts-half-of-total-investment-in-the-country-shows-sia-latest-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/sofia-attracts-half-of-total-investment-in-the-country-shows-sia-latest-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofia Attracts Half of the Total Investment in the Country, Shows SIA Latest Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2016 Bulgarian Institute for Market Economics prepared an \u201cEconomy and Investment Profile of Sofia\u201d report for Sofia Investment Agency. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report Sofia is the biggest district economy in Bulgaria. About 39% of the country\u2019s GDP is produced here. Sofia also attracts about half of the total foreign investment in the country. According to recent data, about 49% of fixed asset expenses and about 54% of foreign direct investments were made in \u00a0Sofia.<\/p>\n

The service sector accounts for the biggest portion of the municipal economy and it is not a surprise that most of the investments were made in that sector. Among the most attractive sectors for foreign investment in the capital were also the \u201cindustry and utilities\u201d sector, real estate, IT and outsourcing.<\/p>\n

Apart from attracting economically active people from other regions, Sofia is also characterized by the concentration of highly qualified population. While in Bulgaria the average proportion of university graduates is 28%, in Sofia it is almost double at 50%. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sofia offers a relatively good infrastructure connectivity. It is one of the main railway hubs in the country. It is a part of three European transport corridors and the starting point of several motorways that connect the capital with the Black Sea coast and the national borders with Turkey, Greece and Serbia. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sofia offers a relatively good infrastructure connectivity. It is one of the main railway hubs in the country. It is a part of three European transport corridors and the starting point of several motorways that connect the capital with the Black Sea coast and the national borders with Turkey, Greece and Serbia. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report, the city will continue to attract a growing share of the country\u2019s economic activity.<\/p>\n

The growth will be attributed to the positive demographic trends and Sofia\u2019s leadership position in the fastest growing economic sectors. The highly qualified workforce in Sofia will keep attracting investment to the rapidly growing IT industry, the business services sector, plus high-value added industrial activities. The growth will also be aided by the \u00a0suitable IT infrastructure, the highly educated workforce and fast speed internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Sofia was about 39% of the national GDP. Sofia\u2019s economy is dominated by the service sector which accounted for 85.9% of the district\u2019s GDP. The industrial sector contributed another 13.9% and agriculture had a symbolic share of 0.2%. Professional activities find good conditions for growth in Sofia due to the combination of highly educated workforce (including technical qualification), high degree of foreign language proficiency and relatively low labor costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The capital continues to be the most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, attracting about 54% of the total FDI. Cumulative investment in Sofia year to date amounted to 11.7 bn. euro or 8 857 per capita, \u00a0compared to 3 007 euro per capita in the rest of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The largest recipient of FDI in Sofia was \u00a0the wider sector of trade, transport and tourism, \u00a0with a share of about 30%. The second largest recipient of foreign investment is the real estate sector \u2013 with about 20%. Industry and public utilities came third with 18%. \u00a0The sector of \u201cCreation and distribution of information and creative products; telecommunications\u201d was also among the most attractive sectors for foreign investment with 15% of the total FDI. The sector includes all IT businesses.<\/p>\n

The local tax environment in the capital is stable and predictable. None of the basic local taxes and fees have increased in the last 5 years.<\/p>\n

All figures and the full report in English are published in the section <\/span>Market Analysis & Business Insights<\/a> on our website<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2016 Bulgarian Institute for Market Economics prepared an \u201cEconomy and Investment Profile of Sofia\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investsofia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}