Sofia, November 22 (BTA) - On Monday Sofia is hosting the 10th Investor Finance Forum, the biggest investment and finance forum in Bulgaria and the region. Opening the forum, Ilia Lingorski, member of the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund (3SIIF) Management Board, said that history knows no successful exit from a system and global crisis without massive investments in strategic infrastructure.

The 10th Investor Finance Forum of Investor.bg is held in a hybrid format: in Hyatt Regency Sofia and on Bloomberg TV Bulgaria.

Lingorski went on to say that in the Three Seas region, the new EU Member States have similar characteristics for development. Building the connecting infrastructure is of particular importance for the region, because it accounts for 30 per cent of the Union's territory and 20 per cent of the EU population while generating 10 per cent of the Union's GDP.

The 3SIIF aims to attract local and global private capital so as to overcome the lag behind old EU Member States, Lingorski said. In addition to the normal infrastructure, there is innovation infrastructure that until now did not receive sufficient attention, he argued. That is why the Three Seas Initiative is working on creating a new mechanism - an innovation forum - that would attract mostly private capital in order to speed up investments. "In addition to public capital, which currently is the main driver of innovations, we are seeking to attract private capital flows that at present are skipping us and going towards Asia," he said.

In his words, investors are interested in whether Bulgaria is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development because that is when their wallets will open. Another goal of the 3SIIF is to support local investors by, for example, involving pension funds and social investors in projects for the development of infrastructure and innovations. That will also encourage foreign investors to come to Bulgaria, Lingorski said.

Milen Velcher, Executive Director of VTB Capital and former finance minister, said that in the last two to three years foreign investors have been receiving mostly negative signals from Bulgaria, with the exception of the prospect of the country joining the euro zone.

Bulgarian politicians failed in the task to handle the pandemic and its impact, Velchev also said. "We cannot have the highest mortality rate due to the pandemic and expect investors to be optimistic towards our country," he added. According to him, the introduction of the Green Certificate was a right but late move. He proposed that support for businesses be linked to the requirement that the companies employees be vaccinated.

Velchev expressed the hope that a parliamentary majority and a government are about to be formed that will observe the rule of law. Bulgaria needs stability for at least two to three years and a civilized policy on the part of regulatory bodies towards foreign investors, he argued.