Bulgaria Eyes Key Role on China's 'Silk Road'

Two Chinese companies - the e-commerce giant Alibaba and the Porter City Holding are considering investing in major logistical projects in Bulgaria, Bulgarian institutions have announced.

Alibaba is planning to build a logistical base nearby the coastal city of Burgas while the municipality of Plovdiv announced on Tuesday that Porter City is to build an "economic city" in the Plovdiv area over the next three years.

Stamen Milanov, director of the Bulgarian Investment Agency, BIA, said Alibaba is to invest more than 100 million euros in the base, which would serve as a distribution hub for the purchases of European customers.

He told the media that the Agency had held a meeting with the company, which is considering "a solid investment".

The choice of Burgas, located on the Black Sea coastline, is not a surprise. It has the second biggest harbour in Bulgaria, which will be connected to the Chinese city of Zhengzhou by a cargo train line following the so-called "Silk Road".

The train will be operated by the state-owned Chinese company Zhengzhou International Hub Development and Construction Co and the Bulgarian logistical firm Despred, which signed an agreement in March 2016.

Burgas will be the first European destination of the cargo line, which starts from the Chinese province of Henan and runs via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The planned industrial city near Plovdiv is also linked to China's new Silk Road. It would be a pilot project for the whole of Europe, based on the new concept of the Chinese government called "One road, one belt", Plovdiv municipality explained.

The concept's core idea is to connect China with the world by building up economic relations following the Silk Road.

Porter City Holding,...