site.btaGovernment Plans Revival for Bulgaria’s Underdeveloped North

Northern Bulgaria is largely an industrial desert, and this is its major problem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev said during a parliamentary committee hearing on Thursday.

He reasoned: “Such areas exist in Southern Bulgaria too, but the concentration of industrial capacity north of the Balkan Range is noticeably lower. The stark difference between Southern and Northern Bulgaria is due to two main reasons: the industrialization of the Plovdiv region over the past 15 years, and the fact that Sofia is considered part of Southern Bulgaria.”

Donchev was answering a question from the Velichie parliamentary group during a hearing at the National Assembly Committee on EU Affairs and Oversight of the EU Funds.

Among the necessary measures to revive Northern Bulgaria, Donchev listed the construction of the Hemus Motorway, the development of industrial zones, and the completion of two vertical corridors: Corridor 4, running from Germany via the Bulgarian Danubian port of Vidin and Sofia to the Greek Aegean port of Thessaloniki, and Corridor 9, from Helsinki via Kyiv and Bucharest, through Bulgaria’s main Danubian port of Ruse and on through Veliko Tarnovo and Dimitrovgrad to the Greek seaport of Alexandoupolis. Donchev noted that the Bulgarian section of Corridor 9 will bisect the Balkan Range either through a future tunnel under Mt Shipka or via the Petrohan Pass, where the existing road can be widened and renovated.

The Deputy PM recalled that the Ministry of Innovation and Growth has a scheme for funding the construction of 11 industrial zones, including in Northern Bulgaria—such as in Vidin, Shumen, Ruse, and Svishtov.

Iliyana Ilieva, who heads of the Directorate-General for EU Competitiveness Funds at the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, stated: "We have targeted support that we plan to launch in the autumn or early winter. It is specifically aimed at enterprises in the Northern regions. The focus is on implementing innovations in businesses, with conditions more accessible than the previous scheme under the ‘Competitiveness and Innovation in Enterprises' Programme."

She also emphasized support for the development of industrial parks, most of them in Northern Bulgaria.

Among the planned measures and policies for developing Northern Bulgaria, Ilieva mentioned a programme where the beneficiary is the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, functioning under the Ministry of Innovation and Growth. The project, she noted, is being carried out in partnership with the World Bank.