Bulgaria

Bulgaria is approximately the size of England. It is situated in South East Europe, bordered to the south by Turkey & Greece, Romania to the north and the Black Sea to the east. The River Danube connects it to Austria's Vienna and Budapest in Hungary.

The country is served by a good transport system with excellent road, rail & air links. There are motorway standard connections between Sofia & Bourgas and Sofia & Varna. Flights between the two take only 40 minutes. There are daily scheduled flights from London & Manchester and many other European airports to Sofia throughout the year, and Varna and Bourgas during the summer months.

The beautiful Black Sea coast is establishing itself as a favourite holiday destination for British, German and Dutch tourists in particular. It is only a matter of time before the budget airlines are competing for this trade and indeed Ryan Air have commenced cheap flights from Germany and are currently attempting to establish further connections from Europe.

E.U. accession will take place in 2007, when the laws in Bulgaria are harmonised with the rest of the European Union. Currently the cost of living is less than a third of the U.K. and the average salary is 150 Euros per month. Bulgaria has a stable democratic political system (parliamentary republic). Elections are held every 4 years. The tax regime is extremely sympathetic to corporate employers that are attracted by the ever-expanding educated work-force. - There is an emerging middle class.

In recent years blue-chip international companies such as Shell, Cable & Wireless, Rio Tinto Zinc, United Utilities, Banco Unito Credito etc, etc. have invested heavily in the country.