Bulgaria
Bulgaria offers from a business opportunitie point of view:
- Well-educated, young, multilingual labor force
- One of the lowest wage rates in the EU
- Convenient geographic location
- Simplified registration process for new businesses providing a minimum initial capital and a time frame of up to 2 weeks
- Low corporate taxes
- Incentives for investment in certain sectors such as computer technologies, research and development, manufacturing, etc.
- EU membership provides Structural and Cohesion Funds financing opportunities to all qualified U.S. companies, including SMEs
The most important sectors of Bulgaria’s economy in 2016 were industry (23.8 %), wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food services (22.2 %) and public administration, defence, education, human health and social work activities (14.1 %). Intra-EU trade accounts for 68% of Bulgaria’s exports (Germany 14%, Italy 9% and Romania 9%), while outside the EU 8% go to Turkey and 2% to China. In terms of imports, 67% come from EU Member States (Germany 13%, Italy 8% and Romania 7%), while outside the EU 9% come from Russia and 6% from Turkey.
- Total EU spending in Bulgaria: € 2.345 billion while total Bulgarian contribution to the EU budget: € 0.382 billion. Bulgaria receives therefore around € 2.1 billion net in the from of EU spending in the country.
- Total EU spending in Bulgaria: € 2.345 billion
- Total EU spending as % of Bulgaria’s gross national income (GNI): 5 %
- Total Bulgarian contribution to the EU budget: € 0.382 billion
- Bulgarian contribution to the EU budget as % of its GNI: 0.81 %