site.btaMost Applicants under Recovery and Resilience Plan Are Companies from Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Ruse

Outside the capital, the most companies that have applied for the first procedure under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) are from the regions of Plovdiv, Varna and Ruse, the Ministry of Innovation and Growth said here on Saturday.

Traditionally, as in other procedures, Sofia city has the highest number of applicants - 650 projects for nearly BGN 112 million. The smallest number of proposals under the first measure of the RRP are from Vidin (9), Targovishte (23), Yambol (24) and Razgrad (25). 

There is a huge interest from small and medium-sized enterprises in the procedure under the Ministry. More than 2 500 applicants across the country have applied for grants worth over BGN 620 million for technological modernisation of their businesses. The total value of the projects exceeds BGN 1 billion. Around 2,000 companies have passed to the final evaluation phase.

Plovdiv submitted 358 project proposals for grants of nearly BGN 104 million, Varna - 146 for over BGN 31 million, Ruse - 134 for over BGN 26 million. A total of 126 projects for over BGN 29 million have been submitted under the procedure from Blagoevgrad.

The "Technological modernisation" procedure is aimed at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the documents were submitted entirely online, the Ministry said.

By the New Year, the Ministry will publish the list of projects approved for funding from across the country. 

A few days ago, Bulgaria, through the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, mandated the European Investment Fund, part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, to manage three equity financial instruments of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.