07.8.2007

INVESTORS SAY THEY WILL START BUILDING AT BULGARIA’S IRAKLI

Some of the main investment companies in the region of Bulgaria’s Irakli announced at a news conference in Nessebar that they planned to start construction in the area.

The AKB Fores and Swiss Properties complexes will be completed, Focus news agency reported.

Investors have registered a joint-stock company named Irakli and are ready to start infrastructure developments in the region.

Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov recently extended the construction ban in the coastal area of Irakli.

He said that he “will not let a single plot be taken away from the already approved zoning plan”.

Construction in the area would be allowed if the process of issuing building permits was transparent.

Stoyan Zahariev of Swiss Properties said that construction would start in autumn 2007. He said that the ban already had led to huge losses for the company.

Evgenia Baneva of AKB Fores said that the ban was unnecessary because an environmental impact assessment showed that 70 per cent of protected animal and plant species in the region mentioned in it did not exist, despite environmentalists’ claims.