An investment by Italian entrepreneur Edoardo Miroglio of 22 million euro in a winery near Stara Zagora is the latest large such investment in the south central Bulgarian town.

The investment was announced during the annual Vinaria wine exhibition in Plovdiv, where the wines from the vineyard in the village of Elenovo were exhibited for the first time.

Miroglio is the largest-scale Italian investor in the country. In the past seven years, he has put 200 million euro into the country, creating jobs for more than 1500 Bulgarians.
Earlier this month, it was announced that a Bulgarian-Italian joint venture is to set up a new vehicle parts manufacturing plant in Stara Zagora.

According to Holding Zagora commercial director Maria Horsikyan, the initial investment for the plant is a million euro. The site for the plant has been chosen, and the lines for processing the parts have been ordered. The plant will manufacture parts for small and heavy-duty vehicles. It will have 50 employees.

At the same time, three companies are to invest about 100 million leva in the construction of a 66 000 sq m shopping mall to be built in Stara Zagora.

The first hypermarket in the mall is to open in July and the second will be completed by the end of 2006. According to project co-ordinator Evgeni Zhekov, participants in the project are to include M Bricolage and Technopolis. The mall will have a parking area for 1200 cars.

Almost 500 construction firms operate in Stara Zagora, an indicator of the rising value of real estate in the region. Of these firms, about 20 have annual profits exceeding 100 000 leva and 48 construction firms have net sales revenues higher than 500 000 leva, according to the regional office of statistics.

Stara Zagora-based Preskov AD is to invest about a million euro in production equipment upgrades in 2006. The upgrade is expected to triple Preskov's output. The company makes parts for the motor vehicle industry, machine-building industry. It exports about 60 per cent of its products, with major customers including firms in Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

In another development, businesses in Stara Zagora are getting together to set up cluster associations. In February, a total of 23 producers of traditional Bulgarian foods set up a cluster association, including milk and meat processing firms, wine makers and farmers, who are attempting to solve common challenges together. With the support of the European Union PHARE programme, cluster associations are meant to be a method of building the competitiveness of Bulgaria's economy.

In Stara Zagora, discussions are being held on setting up a cluster association of tourist agents. Tourist attractions within reach of Stara Zagora include Shipka and the ancient site of Perperikon near Kurdjali.