Atanasov, as cited by Darik radio, made clear that the contract signed with Russian company South Stream Transport in mid-January 2014 was for a four-year term.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Port Varna underscored that even in the case of a re-routing of the gas pipeline via Turkey, the pipes would still have to be offloaded in Varna and Burgas.

Under preliminary plans, the offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline was to consist of four parallel strings located on the Black Sea seabed, with each string consisting of over 75 000 pipes.

Some of the pipes are still stored on the territory of warehouse terminals at the ports of Varna and Burgas.

Sitel, a leading global customer care provider, will open its second Bulgarian location in Varna in February 2015. The new customer experience center will provide German-speaking services for a well-known company in the telecommunications sector. Additional international customers will be served with multi-lingual customer care. Recruitment has begun, and Sitel will hire approximately 100 employees through the end of 2015. This is Sitel’s second customer experience center in Bulgaria. The first, located in Sofia, opened in 2006.

The Varna facility is Sitel’s fourth nearshore location in Eastern Europe. Sitel already successfully operates customer experience centers in Belgrade and Warsaw. The decision to open another site in Eastern Europe is in line with Sitel’s strategy. “We provide clear value-add for our customers and create win-win situations with the best possible services at competitive prices,” said Sitel’s Managing Director for Germany, Eastern Europe and The Netherlands, Christian Steinebach.

Varna is the third largest city in Bulgaria and offers an attractive demographic structure. Five Varna universities and many schools teach German, English, French and Spanish, providing a basis for well-trained and qualified multi-lingual staff.

Sitel’s HR Director for Germany, Europe and the Netherlands, Ingo Liendgens, explained, “The construction of the new site takes place in stages. The new employees initially will undergo an intense introductory session to familiarize them with the quality standards and Sitel’s Global Operating System. The first campaign will go live in early February.”

The step was announced Wednesday after a meeting of Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih and Cenk Ocal, head of Turkish Airlines for Bulgaria, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.

The Turkish air carrier plans to conduct the direct flights year-round 4 times a week, according to the press office of the Varna Municipality.

“Turkish Airlines is a leading carrier in Europe, we operate in over 200 countries, and we have the ambition to reach 2000 flights a day,” Ocal was quoted as saying after the meeting.

He argued that the new Varna-Istanbul flight would make it possible for Varna to become a bridge to the countries from the Middle and Far East.

Ocal explained that Turkish Airlines would promote the direct flight to Varna for free not only in Turkey but in all of the countries where it functioned.

He vowed that all inflight magazines of the company would provide information about Varna and all major cultural, sports and other events taking place in the Black Sea city.

As of March 30, Serbia’s flag carrier, Air Serbia, will also launch flights from Belgrade to Sofia and Varna.

Flights of Air Serbia to Sofia will run every day and flights to Varna will run three times a week. As of June, Belgrade-Varna flights will be conducted on a daily basis.

The flights from Belgrade to Sofia and Varna will be serviced by ATR72 aircraft manufactured by a French-Italian consortium.

The average asking sales prices in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia stood at BGN 1 444.83 per square meter, and  Varna keeps the second place with  BGN 1 381.33 per square meter followed by Burgas – BGN 1 113.33 per square meter.

Even though prime neighborhoods had a negligible, average decrease of 1.8% in an year-on-year comparison, 2013 was the fourth year in a row when residential property prices in Bulgaria edged down.

Residential property prices marked the sharpest fall in towns, plagued by high unemployment rates, such as Vidin, Vratsa and Dobrich.

The fall in prices this time was not due to soft demand, but rather to the need of sellers to dispose of their property and get cash, as well as due to the limited budgets of the buyers, experts say.

Developers remain flexible; willing to offer attractive schemes for installment payment, finishing works or parking spaces as well as rent-to-buy opportunity.

Buyers are careful and have high expectations from the developers. Few, if any, transactions are closed on the asking sales prices.

NOVINITE.COM

Mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih, German Ambassador Matthias Hoepfner  & Honorary Council of Germany in Varna, Mr. Nedyalko Nedelchev – Photo:  Cherno More newspaper

The Municipality of Varna will actively participate in tourism fairs in Germany by advertising itself on four such events there.

The Port of Varna is the largest seaport complex in Bulgaria, located in the Black Sea city of Varna. It attracts serious volumes of cargo, including from Russia via the hugely successful new ferry line Varna-Caucasus.

by StandartNews newspaper

The IBA`s Executive Director Mr. Svetoslav Mladenov emphasized that Varna is one of the main investment regions in Bulgaria. “The city has great potential in attracting investments. That is why, it is important to speak more clearly to the business representatives and the dialogue between the business and administration should be more effective so as the business to be supported and facilitated by the state authorities”, Mr. Mladenov pointed out.

The project, which began several years ago, is now about to be accomplished completely. Тhe first PET scanner in Bulgaria was installed two years ago, which is of crucial importance to the proper and accurate diagnosis of the disease, and consequently to its successful treatment.

The scanner is a hybrid method for the most state-of-the-art and accurate diagnostics of cancer at the time being. It allows the entire body to be scanned completely and with great accuracy (it can detect up to 1 mm entity), to locate both the primary focus of the tumor and its spread (metastases). Having done the histology tests in order to define the type of carcinoma, the team of specialists in the hospital can prescribe the most adequate and appropriate treatment regimen for the patient.

The PET scanner operates with a contrast substance that is injected into the patient. It makes it feasible to detect increased metabolic processes in the body which are characteristic of tumors. The contrast substance is a cyclotron product (an isotope – glucose marked with Fluorine 18), which used to be imported from Hungary up to now. Since the half-life of the substance is only 110 minutes (only half of it remains after this period), Varna hospital had to order repeatedly higher doses for each patient, so that the necessary amount of the substance could be injected in order to conduct the examination. The fact that it is impossible to transport the substance from the centre in Debrecen, Hungary to Varna in less than 110 minutes, the extra cost of the process and the long list of awaiting patients incited the hospital to take the initiative in taking steps to acquire their own cyclotron.

Cyclotron has already been installed and it is currently in the middle of a period of testing to ensure the absolute safety both of the specialists who will work with it and the environment. In a few weeks’ time it is expected all the world safety requirements to be fulfilled by the hospital and the production of the contrast substance to be started.

The next step in the development of the Oncological Centre at “St. Marina” University Hospital will be the installation of two linear accelerators and tomotherapy, which the hospital has managed to gain in a project. The latest generation apparatus with a variety of possibilities will be delivered for the specific needs of the patients.

All this will enable the people suffering from cancer diseases to be treated according to the world standards here, in Varna, and not to seek opportunities for treatment, worth thousands of Euros, abroad.

The transition from the underwater to the land section of south stream will be made with a horizontal drilling so the pipeline will not be technically visible on the surface even during the construction phase, the company said.
It added that the same location already hosts a gas pipeline transiting natural gas from Bulgaria’s Black Sea deposits, which has not interfered with local life, business, tourism, or nature in any way.

Under Bulgarian legislation, the distance between the gas pipeline and the closest inhabited building must be at least 120 meters. The South Stream company explained that its pipeline will emerge on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast at a location 4.5 km away from the Galata quarter, about 15 km away from Varna centre, and 8 km from Varna’s Asparukh Bridge.

“It is also important to note that the South Stream pipeline will be delivering natural gas, not oil or oil derivatives. Natural gas is the most environment-friendly fuel known in the world, which, in a combination with the hi-tech solution for transferring the pipe onto the land through a horizontal drilling cannot be any matter of concern on part of the environmental organization, the tourism business, or the people living in the area,” the South Stream company alleged Wednesday.

The South Stream pipeline is intended to transport up to 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas to central and southern Europe, diversifying Russian gas routes away from transit countries such as Ukraine. Construction started in December 2012 in Russia.

The pipes will go from Russia to Bulgaria via the Black Sea; in Bulgaria it will split in two – with the northern leg going through Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia to Austria and Northern Italy, and the southern leg going through Greece to Southern Italy.

The Black Sea underwater section of South Stream between Russia and Bulgaria will be 900 km long, and will be constructed at a maximum depth of 2 km. The pipeline’s core shareholders include Gazprom with 50%, Italy’s Eni with 20% and Germany’s Wintershall Holding and France’s EDF with 15% each.

The project includes the development and modernization of the existing building and the construction of two new bodies. Aula Maxima with over 500 seats, four new auditoria, each of them with 250 seats, an Electronic Library, modern laboratories and studies are a part of the future development. Keeping up with the latest trends in the leading universities, which the University of Varna equals in, a special emphasis is put on the social and sports activities of the students. Ground and underground parking facilities will provide the access to the complex.

In the university, with more than half a century of history, more than 4 500 students, graduate students, PhD postgraduates are being educated in the field of Human Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Health Care and Health Management. Students from over 34 foreign countries around the world have chosen to study and graduate in the Medical University of Varna.

Follows an interview with the Rector of the Medical University of Varna Prof. Krasimir Ivanov, MD, PhD about the a project for the expansion and modernization of the University:

Professor Ivanov, where will the funds for the implementation of the project come from?

We are a state University, which is subsidized by the state, so we cannot expect financial support for that purpose. We intend to apply for European funding – for European programmes in Educational Infrastructure in the “Science and Education” European programme, as well as for any other possible donor programmes.

And how much will the implementation of the project cost?

The total amount of money necessary for the construction of the two new buildings and the modernization of the present building is about 20 million euros.

When will the foundation stone be laid?

We will begin as soon as the funds are provided. In fact, we can say that with the preparation of this architectural project, with our clear idea and vision for our future development, with the plans and the specific tasks that we have set ourselves, we have already laid it.

And how long will it take the beautiful sketches of the project to become a reality?

I think the project can be finalized within a year and a half, up to two years from the start. The building and the construction activities will be in stages. First, we will start with the construction of the two new buildings. One of them will be located in the present backyard of the University, where currently the sports hall is situated and the other one will be on the territory of the parking lot, behind the University. At the final stage, not to interfere with the learning process, the present University building will be modernized with the building of an extra storey.

Aula “Maxima”, called “The Brain”, which will be located in one of the oval buildings, will have 500 seats. Will that be the largest University auditorium?

We have no information about the auditoria in the other universities, yet our ambition is not to make the largest auditorium but the most advanced one! It will be the auditorium with the most advanced high-tech equipment, with the state-of-the-art audio visual and communication equipment and technologies. It will provide teleconference connections, live broadcast of operations in Bulgarian and foreign hospitals, 3D and holographic images …

The investment in the Varna Thermal Power Plant, situated in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Varna, amounts to EUR 100 M. The designing and the construction of the purification installations will begin in 2013 and is to be completed by end-2015, according to reports of investor.bg.

The Varna TPP is part of the so-called “cold reserve” of Bulgaria’s energy system. The Varna TPP is connected to the national grid at the request of the Electricity System Operator (ESO) to prevent power shortages during peak loads.

In 2011, the generating units of the Varna-based TPP were used on 41 occasions, according to a media statement of CEZ. Air pollution prevention measures will be implemented at units 4 to 6 of the Varna TPP.

While the emission reduction technologies are being installed, the Varna-based TPP will continue to be part of the reserve generating capacity and units 1 to 3 will supply electricity in case of necessity. Units 1 to 3 of the “Varna” TPP will most likely be dismantled after 2013.

The Varna TPP is currently the second largest thermal power plant in Bulgaria and on the Balkan Peninsula. The condensation-type TPP has a total installed capacity of 1260 MWh, including six mono blocks of 210 MWh each.