On April 19, 2018, a Sectoral Advisory Council was established in the office of Automotive Cluster Bulgaria for the sector ‘Car Industry’. The Council is established in connection with the implementation of project BG05M9OP001-1.013-0001-С01 "Development of the National Competence Assessment System - MyCompetence", with a specific beneficiary the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The project builds on the achievements of the project "Development and Implementation of an Information System for Assessment of Competences of the Workforce by Branches and Regions" (ISOC) implemented by BIA with the financial support of the European Social Fund of the European Union. In the previous programming period, BIA set up 20 sectoral advisory councils, and within the framework of the current project, five new councils have been set up, one of which is for the Automotive Industry sector.

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Bulgaria fell by an annual 42% to EUR 204.9 million in the first two months of the year, the central bank, BNB, said. The FDI inflow was equal to 0.4% of the BNB’s 2018 GDP forecast. Real estate investments by non-residents in Bulgaria totalled EUR 900,000 in January-February, compared to EUR 2 million during the same period of last year. The largest inflow of real estate investment came from Russia, 48.8% of the total amount, followed by Kazakhstan with 35.6%. The largest net direct investment inflow in Bulgaria in January-February, of EUR 57.9 million, was from Great Britain. Germany and Greece followed with EUR 44.1 million and EUR 30.5 million, respectively.

Estimates of significant economic growth and record low unemployment lie behind the expectations of Bulgarian finance directors to improve their performance in 2018. As a result, managers show a reasonably stronger strive for moderate risk. This shows the results of Deloitte's traditional survey of business attitudes for the upcoming year. The survey was conducted among more than 600 financial managers from 12 Central and Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, at the end of last year. As a whole, business attitudes improve in the region, mainly due to optimism about macroeconomic conditions. Bulgarian financial directors have the most optimistic expectations for GDP growth by managers in all 12 countries surveyed. Estimates improve for a fifth consecutive year as a result of accelerating economic recovery in the country and the euro area.

Southeast Europe (SEE) is the new hot spot for global carmakers. Although without a car assembly plant, 170 companies operate in Bulgaria and produce components for the industry, as most of them plan to expand their operations. This is stated in the SeeNews analysis of the automotive industry in the region. Expected leaders are countries such as Romania, Slovenia and Serbia, where there are assembly plants, which lead to many other companies for auto parts. On a regional basis, Bulgaria can not compare to Romania, Slovenia and Serbia, as there are no assembling capacities. In 2012, the Chinese Great Wall together with Litex Motors made such a plant near Lovech with an annual capacity of 50,000, but it was never reached. At the beginning of 2017, the company stopped production and began bankruptcy proceedings. However, there are 170 companies in the country producing automotive components that account for 4% of GDP. More than 40,000 people are employed, according to data from the automotive cluster and the ministry of economy for 2017.

The Electricity System Operator (ESO) and the French electricity transmission operator RTE will work for a common position on the legislative texts in the Electricity Market model sub-package. This became clear after a meeting of representatives of the two operators. They will defend their common position during the upcoming tripartite meetings of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission. They agreed actively to participate in the development of the sub-packages for the Electricity Market model. ESO Executive Director Angelin Tsachev welcomed the French colleagues and introduced them to ESO's participation in the process of full liberalization of the electricity market in Bulgaria and the region. He also presented the successful launch of the "within the day" market segment.

Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) has delisted its EUR 400 million five-year senior secured notes issue, due in November, from the Irish Stock Exchange. The company provided no further details in its filing to the Irish bourse. Last month the company said it plans to repay the issue early, on April 19. The notes were issued in 2013 and subsequently listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. The issue carries an annual coupon of 6.625% with payments due semi-annually. On the mobile segment of the Bulgarian market, the telecommunications group competes with the Bulgarian units of Norway's Telenor and Telekom Austria, as well as with 4G operator Max.

Financial and insurance group Eurohold Bulgaria said its consolidated net profit rose to BGN 18.2 million in 2017, compared to BGN 8.5 million the year before. Eurohold Bulgaria's after-tax profit, which includes net profit attributable to non-controling interests, increased to BGN 24.4 million in 2017 compared to BGN 10.2 million in 2016. Eurohold's subsidiaries recorded a combined after-tax profit of BGN 42.3 million in 2017, up from BGN 7.9 million the year before. Eurohold Bulgaria posted a non-consolidated net loss of BGN 17.3 million last year, compared to a non-consolidated net profit of BGN 2.3 million in 2016. The company's total consolidated operating revenue rose to BGN 1.24 billion last year from BGN 1.06 billion in 2016. Consolidated operating expenses increased to BGN 1.22 billion in the review period from BGN 1.04 billion in 2016.

The EU is simplifying the rules on using money from the EU budget. On 19 April 2018, the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) endorsed an agreement reached with the European Parliament on the so-called Omnibus regulation on EU financial rules. The regulation will amend the existing financial regulation which sets out a general framework for budget management, as well as a series of acts governing EU multiannual programmes in specific fields, including cohesion policy. There will be simpler rules on using different types of funds, whether these are managed directly by the Commission, indirectly by various organisations and bodies, or jointly with national authorities. The new rules will extend the possibility of basing EU payments on the achievement of results or on pre-defined method rather than tracing every euro of expenditure. Where no statistical or historical data is available, expert judgements can be used for assessing costs. This will reduce paperwork for both beneficiaries and authorities, who will be able to focus on policy achievements rather than collecting and checking financial documents. The risk of error will also decrease and it will become easier for small beneficiaries with limited resources to access EU funds.

Procter & Gamble Co (P&G) has agreed to acquire Merck KGaA’s consumer health unit for 3.4 billion euros ($4.2 billion), giving it vitamin brands such as Seven Seas and greater exposure to Latin American and Asian markets. The maker of Pampers diapers and Gillette razors said the deal would help it expand its portfolio of consumer healthcare products which includes Vicks cold relief. The Merck unit includes vitamin brands Femibion and Neurobion. The deal follows GlaxoSmithKline agreeing to buy Novartis out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion after dropping its pursuit of Pfizer’s consumer unit. Pfizer has struggled to divest the business for as much as $20 billion, after Reckitt Benckiser dropped out last month and Johnson & Johnson stepped away in January. Prescription-free remedies offer stable sales due to customers’ brand loyalty, albeit at lower margins than pharmaceuticals.The purchase price for Merck’s business suggests that the German company climbed down from price demands of as much as 4 billion euros, which sources told Reuters had deterred initial suitors such as Nestle, Perrigo and Stada owners Bain and Cinven.

Two Chinese companies and the Agency of the Far East to attract investment and support exports (IPA) have signed an agreement of intent to implement the project on construction of high-speed railway from Vladivostok to Mudanjiang (China), according to the administration of Primorye. In signing the agreement was attended by Deputy General Director of the company China Railway Dongfang group Wang Yupin, Executive Director of the company Prestige Frontier limited» Chan Hau Ping and CEO of API, Leonid Petukhov. The signing was attended by presidential envoy to FEFD Yuri Trutnev. The investment project China Railway Dongfang group presented on the last Day of the Chinese investor in December 2017 in Vladivostok. „Today, the parties met again to consolidate the agreements. The planned construction of high-speed railway, which will connect the city of Mudanjiang and Vladivostok, will have a design operating speed of 250 kilometers per hour, which meets the standards for railway passenger destination in China. The proposed high speed rail project involves the construction of 12 new railway stations with a total length of paths 380 kilometers“.