A new industrial zone will be built near Sandanski. Its development will depend on the investor's interest, Deputy Minister of Economy Aleksandar Manolev announced.

A memorandum for the construction of the area near Sandanski was signed by Kiril Kotev, Mayor of the city and Antoaneta Bares, Executive Director of the National Industrial Zone Company, and a foreign business delegation was introduced on the spot with the possibilities of the future zone.

It will be built in the village of Damianitza because of the good road and railway connection that the place offers, said Mayor Kotev. He expressed hope that the project would help not only to increase people's incomes but also to create employment which would result in the return of young people who left the municipality.

The zone may be attractive to third-country investors. Talks have already been held with companies in India and China seeking a place near the port of Thessaloniki and the European market, Aleksandar Manolev said.

The Sandanski Industrial Zone will be located 500 km from nine European capitals and the largest city in Europe - Istanbul, and 2 hours from the economic centers of Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia, he said.

Large volumes of cargo pass through this direction. For the first half of the year, trade between Bulgaria and Greece increased by 8.4% compared to the same period in 2016 to EUR 1.5 billion. At the same time, exports to Macedonia for 2016 amounted to around EUR 390 million and imports to EUR 245 million. Some of these turnovers would also remain or pass through this region, Manolev said.

"It is very important to create a mechanism not only to attract investment in the region but also to keep them as an industrial zone will be important in these efforts," said the Deputy Minister of Economy. He gave an example with Greece, which ranks third in the volume of investments in Bulgaria with EUR 3.7 billion in the last ten years and expressed hope that this area would be attractive for companies from our southern neighbor.

Currently in Southwestern Bulgaria there is no industrial zone and Sandanski has all the prerequisites to develop as a center for directing investors with interest to this part of our country, said Antoaneta Bares, Executive Director of NCIP.