Borissov announced a 420-million-euro investment in a gunpowder plant

Boyko Borissov has announced a strategic investment in a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria worth 420 million euros. According to him, the project will be implemented jointly with the European defense industry manufacturer Rheinmetall. According to the GERB leader, the company will have 51% ownership of a future joint venture, and the Bulgarian state – 49%.

I am here today with the authorization to announce that the largest company in Europe - I have not asked the others to give their names - wants to come next week to invest in Bulgaria," Borissov said to journalists.

The investment offer is already on Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's desk, according to Borissov.

This was the reason for Borissov's visit to Dortmund on Tuesday. His Facebook posts revealed that he had met with the head of the German Rheinmetall concern, Armin Papperger.

I have already sent Prime Minister Zhelyazkov a detailed offer for investment in a gunpowder factory - the most modern factory to be built."

It was not clear from Borisov's statement where exactly the location of the new plant would be.

According to him, the factory will be high-tech and will meet all modern standards - from energy security and water supply to physical security and technical equipment. Experts from the German concern plan to come for a visit next week, added Borissov.

He stressed that the goal is to complete the plant faster than similar projects in Denmark and Lithuania, with which it is competing in terms of time. The maximum deadline for this is 2 years, but the GERB leader shared that the government's will is to make it even shorter, since investments must also be made in the production of shells and technological lines.

When you have the biggest player in the (defense) sector as your partner, no one can talk about corruption," Borissov said.

That Rheinmetall is considering investing in Bulgaria became clear at the end of March, during a Sofia meeting between President Rumen Radev, Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov, and industry representatives.

Also in March, it became clear that a project to build a gunpowder factory by Bulgarian arms businessman Emilian Gebrev had been suspended. The approval of the investment by the Council of Ministers was suspended just before the vote, due to the surprising withdrawal of the positive opinion on the project by the State Agency for National Security and Defense, according to Bogdan Bogdanov, the former Minister of Economy, who submitted the proposal for a vote at the Council of Ministers. According to him, this happened after a call from Delyan Peevski, the leader of the DPS - New Beginning, who at the time supported the coalition government of Nikolay Denkov.

Shortly afterwards, Boyko Borissov stated that Bulgaria should have a state-owned gunpowder factory.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov