The information was announced by the Director of the Port of Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital, Captain Daniel Papazov, quoted by Radio Varna Wednesday.

Expectations for 2012 are that the processed cargo passed at the port will be at least 8 million tons. The port has already sealed 73 permanent contracts for 2011.

The investment program provides for the purchase of two mobile cranes, as well as equipment for loading grain at the Varna – West port.

Bulgarian triple-play provider Vivacom has been authorised by the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) to trial 4G technology in the capital. Vivacom plans to deploy a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Sofia over the next three months. The company expects to use the platform to provide mobile broadband offerings with speeds of up to 100Mbps downlink.

Vivacom  has also announced the commercial launch of its fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) network in Varna, offering speeds of up to 100Mbps and prices from BGN5 (USD3.24) per month. Varna is the second city to be upgraded with a FTTB network, following a rollout in Sofia, where the infrastructure passes some 100,000 households.

All packages offer unlimited bandwidth, Nod 32 antivirus, the opportunity to request a static IP address and an e-mailbox of 500 MB, technical support and installation, all at no extra cost. Business subscribers may request web hosting space of 5 GB. Vivacom’s FiberNet, which was launched in the summer of 2011, already covers over 100,000 households in the capital Sofia.

Since the spring of 2010, there have been seven flights a week on the Varna-Moscow line, which were increased to 14 in the spring of 2011. At the beginning of summer season 2012, flights on each line will go up to 21 a week without restrictions in the number of seats offered per flight, informs Bulgaria’s Transport Ministry.

According to the Ministry, the increase of flights will lead to the increase of capacity of the Varna-Moscow and Burgas-Moscow lines and improve services for Russian tourists next summer.

The Transport Ministry of the Russian Federation has awarded its Bulgarian counterpart with the order Gold Chariot for strengthening partnership in aviation.

Grain and shipments from chemical plants based in the town of Devnya, northeastern Bulgaria, accounted for the bulk of the cargo traffic in August.

On August 31 alone, Port Varna East handled 3000 trucks and shipped 30 000 tons of grain, chiefly wheat, maize, canola and barley.

The port’s freight traffic amounted to 5.5 million tons in the first eight months of the year, an annual increase of 10 per cent.

The port also handled 82 000 containers, up eight per cent on the year.

Currently, the port is renovating its fleet as part of its ambitious investment programme.

The port expects to record an improvement in its financial and operating results and to process more than eight million tons of cargo this year.

Maja, a two-year old Polish girl from the city of Lublin, received a special welcome to  Varna, as she became Varna airport’s one millionth passenger for 2011.

The lucky girl, who is in Bulgaria for the first time, was welcomed by the airport’s director Dimitar Kostadinov and deputy director Plamen Hristov, who gave her a big flower bouquet and a lot of presents.

The girl’s parents, Sylvia and Michal Fliss, expressed their gratitude for the extraordinary welcome. The family has decided to spend its summer break at the Golden Sands resort near Varna.

Some 50 000 Polish tourists have been processed at the Varna airport since the beginning of 2011. Poles are thus the airport’s fourth most frequent visitors after Russians, Germans and Bulgarians.

Meanwhile, also on Friday, Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry announced that the 300 000th visa to Bulgaria has been issued in Russia since the beginning of 2011.

Photo: Varnautre.bg



A peculiar tourist attraction – a 45-meter-long artificial dinosaur has arrived in Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital Varna.

The curious are welcome to take a tour inside the giant Hollywood-manufactured beast and feel its heartbeat and breathing, as well as experience a variety of visual and sound effects.

The “creature” is one of only seven existing in the world, the Bulgarian BGNES news agency says, pointing out they trigger immense interest in all cities they travel through.

The artificial beast, which is meant to represent the actual size of the largest dinosaurs that have ever existed, will stay in Varna until August 30th.

Photo: dnes.bg

The curious are welcome to take a tour inside the giant Hollywood-manufactured beast and feel its heartbeat and breathing, as well as experience a variety of visual and sound effects

The Bulgarian Standart daily further informs the couple has invited Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, to become their best man, and he had accepted going as far as saying he might wear his tailcoat in a desire to be stylish and elegant for the event.

Standart reminds the PM had put a tailcoat only once so far – for a ball in Vienna. The Maid of Honor will be the rising opera star, Valentina Korchakova, who is a close friend of the couple.

The event is going to be attended by Ministers, Members of the Parliament, diplomats and other foreign guests.

It was reported meanwhile that nearly the entire cabinet is in Euxinograd this first weekend of August for a casual work session.

The Ministers of Education and Management of EU Funds, Sergey Ignatov and Tomislav Donchev, both born on August 6, but not in the same year, have celebrated their birthdays along with Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and new Transport Minister, Ivaylo Moskovski, who are born in July, but used the occasion to party with colleagues. The drinks have been provided by Euxinograd’s own winery and distillery, which makes the famous Traminer and Cognac of Euxinograd.

Most of the Ministers are at the residence with their families and the other Deputy PM and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, had even brought his newborn daughter Sofia.

Borisov, however, stressed the goal of the meeting is a discussion on finding ways for the more effective absorption of EU funds.

Euxinograd

The “Euxinograd” palace is located at the outskirts of  Bulgarian Black Sea capital of Varna.

Since 1891, the palace, named “Euxinograd”, after the Greek name of the Black Sea – Euxenos pontos, and built in the French Louis XIII chateau style, has been the summer residence of the Bulgarian royal family. With the coming of the Communists into power, (1944), the castle was turned into an official State residence of the leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Communist Cabinet. Today it is still used as official State residence.

The vineyards around “Euxinograd” include 115 dekares of the European Traminer, Chardonnay and German Riesling variety as well as the local Misket of Vratsa and Red Misket.

In 2008, the cellar had made BGN 540,000 in profit from wine sales. The wine cellar dates from the same time as the castle itself. The classical cellar with above ground and underground sections specializes in white wines due to the climate specifics of the Black Sea region.

In a year the number of Russians, who live in Varna region, has grown by 67 and now they total 496 people. Greeks and Cypriotes are 391 as their number has increased by 52 persons and Germans are 207 people with a growth of 28 persons. Even citizens of the utmost parts of the world had come to live along the Black Sea coast – 8 Chinese and 8 Australians, according to tax records. Obviously the coastal city of Varna attracts visitors not only for the summer vacation but to settle and to work there.
In Varna regional office of the National Revenue Agency are registered 626 foreign companies and in the first six months of 2011 they had paid 717,337 leva in taxes.

Many foreigners choose to retire in Varna

The opening of Varna’s fourth shopping centre, which eventually took place on November 25 2010, had been repeatedly postponed. According to unofficial information, the delay was a result of tough negotiations about funding finishing works at the mall between its investor and Alpha Bank.

Just days ago one of the biggest companies in the region E.ON Bulgaria moved  to their new office at “Varna Towers”, which is located at N258 “Vladislav Varnenchik” Blvd. in Varna. The first clients visited the new office on July 11 and received presents from the company – bags, t-shirts and energy saving bulbs. The new customer service center is based at level -1 in the building and the visitors can use all services offered by E.ON Bulgaria.

The potential sale of Varna Towers will be the second acquisition of a shopping centre in the city. In 2008, local diversified company Interservice Uzunovi sold Mall Varna to UK-based Miller Developments, which was later re-sold to Austria’s Raiffeisen.