Investment projects worth over BGN 800 million have been certified last year by the Bulgarian Investment Agency. Some of them are already in progress and others will start in 2019, with the total number of newly created jobs exceeding 2500. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Economy Alexander Manolev at an official award ceremony in the 16th Annual Corporate Responsibility Awards, organized by the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum (BBLF).

"More initiatives are needed to focus on successful companies in Bulgaria because they have a number of reasons to be proud of their achievements," said Alexander Manolev. According to him, over the last 10 years the private sector in our country has created over 100 thousand new jobs. "A significant part of them are conscientious employers who continue to develop today, and who do not forget that in order to have sustainability you have to invest in society as well," said the Deputy Economy Minister.

He bestowed the awards in the category "Investing in the Society", where Raiffeisen won the first prize campaign "Choose to Help". Together with the support the bank adds to every employee donation, the total amount for this year's campaign donated by the bank and its employees has reached BGN 205,000. For all 9 years, the campaign has supported 233 projects with over 2.7 million BGN.

The 16th edition of the Corporate Social Responsibility Competition compiled a record 112 projects of 71 companies in six categories. BBLF awards aim to promote best practices of companies in areas such as ecology, education, employee development, local communities and society as a whole.

The award ceremony was attended by Mayor of Sofia Municipality Yordanka Fandakova, Minister of Environment and Water Neno Dimov, Minister of Labor and Social Policy Biser Petkov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science Denitsa Sacheva and others.