PRIVATISATION PLANS
Sofia municipality will sell its majority stakes in seven companies and minority shareholdings in another four municipal companies, according to its privatisation plan for the year. So far, the municipality has succeeded in selling about 90 per cent of municipal property in commercial companies and more than 1900 non-residental properites. The privatisation programme includes real estate company Sofiiski Imoti and Municipal Bank. Their sale, however, cannot be completed in 2008, because it would take more than a year to complete the procedures. Companies that would not be privatised were Chistota-Iskar, GIS-Sofia, Sofinvest and Sports Sofia 2000. The programme will be voted by the Sofia municipal council on February 28.

CHEAP BUSINESS TOURISM
Sofia is the cheapest European city for business tourism. A visiting businessman spends an average of 184 euro a day in the Bulgarian capital, according to a survey conducted by the Milan chamber of commerce, which in turn was based on 2006 statistics from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Budapest and Warsaw are also relatively cheap for business tourists, who spend 259 euro and 270 euro a day there, respectively. The figure is 750 euro in Frankfurt, 547 euro in Barcelona, and 523 euro in Geneva. Sofia is also cheap when it comes to business lunches. The average amount paid by businessmen for this purpose is 17.44 euro, compared with 20.75 euro in Milan. However, business tourism in Bulgaria is only making its first steps, while in Milan it accounts for 70 per cent of the total tourism revenue of the city.

VOICE CONTROL PARKING
A new voice control parking system will start functioning in April, Nikolai Alexandrov, head of Parking and Garages municipal company, said. Sofia residents and visitors of the city will be able to pay for their stay in the "blue zone" regulated parking areas in the capital with a phone call. At the moment parking in these areas can be paid with a text message or by buying a parking slip. The new system had been tested and functioned properly, Alexandrov said.

PUBLIC MOBILITY
Sofia city hall should set up a new municipal agency for public transport, a working group at the municipality said. The new institution, tentatively called the Agency for Public Mobility, would replace the five existing departments that deal with public transport matters in Sofia. The working group, which has been charged with drafting a plan that would restructure urban transportation in the city, also wants a new electronic payment system, the upgrade of 1600 public transport stops - which would be equipped with information monitors and ticket machines, as well as the construction of new stops. Bringing in the new electronic payment system alone is expected to take about 25-30 months.