GERMANY'S Kaufland Stiftung & Co will spend 300 million euro to build at least 40 supermarkets in Bulgaria, with the first 10 scheduled to open in 2005 and will create 1200 jobs. This was announced after a meeting on August 11 in Sofia between Deputy Economy Minister Radoslav Bozadjiev and Bruno Fergen of the Kaufland board of directors. According to an Economy Ministry media statement, when Kaufland announced their investment plans for Bulgaria in spring 2004, they said they would build 30 supermarkets worth 200 million euro in total. After further studying the local market and the business environment, the German company increased the planned number of supermarkets. Bozadjiev and Fergen discussed new legislation and new incentives for investors. In July, Economy Minister Lydia Shuleva wrote a letter to Kaufland, notifying them of the new Investment Promotion Act, which entered into force on August 4, 2004. The Cabinet has approved rules for application of this new act, which are to be promulgated in the State Gazette. Fergen said he hopes that Kaufland will be among the first strategic investors certified under the new act. International corporations regard the newly adopted individual approach to investor servicing and the support provided by the Bulgarian state as an important step forward in attracting more foreign investment, Fergen said. After the Investment Promot-ion Act took effect in early August, the Bulgarian Investment Agency (BIA) got requests for institutional support from 15 investors who pledged about one billion leva for local investments. According to BIA chairman Pavel Ezekiev, three to four of the submitted projects are worth more than 100 million leva, another five will cost more than 50 million leva and the rest are worth more than10 million leva each. Institutional support will be provided to investors that commit the project cash to the purchase over a three-year period of fixed assets for manufacturing or for the provision of services. The acquisition of the assets must also create new jobs. The implementation of the Investment Promotion Act could be slowed by the limited pool of qualified administration officials required to process the various licences and permits that will have to be issued under summary procedures. The BIA has so far named two other large investors seeking institutional support. The first one is Spain's Detea, which has submitted a project for the construction of a 50 million euro retail center in Sofia. The other investor is Kaufland. Investment projects worth over 100 million leva qualify for on-site road, power and gas infrastructure. which will be built by the state free of charge. The respective resource should be included in the state budget, but that will probably happen for the first time starting in 2005. BIA expects to get between 50 million and 100 million leva for infrastructure financing next year. The new law will treat on an equal footing domestic and foreign investors. Four of the projects that have been submitted to BIA are from companies with predominantly Bulgarian ownership, two-thirds of the projects originate from the EU, while the rest were filed by companies from North America and the Middle East. Some of the ideas proposed for implementation by the investors concern the manufacture of automobile, transport and construction equipment, construction and modernisation of transport terminals and logistic facilities, production of energy from renewable sources, high-tech ventures in health care and telecommunications. -Business staff