A well-known German company will open a plant in Pleven's industrial zone to make engineering plastic parts. It will create at least 130 jobs, and the investment is €10m.

The goods will be sold in Europe and the Middle East. "Our ambition is to reach not only Europe but also the Middle East through the ports of Varna and Burgas," Silas Waap, head of global industrial engineering at the company, told BNT. Exports there depend on the end of the war and on trade routes reopening.

Waap says the firm picked Bulgaria over Albania and Turkey because of its good infrastructure. Logistics was also a leading factor. Labour is cheaper here than in Germany, and wages at the plant will be reasonable, he said.

The company needs people with technical training and experience in logistics. The German investor plans to expand output in Pleven over the next 10 years.

Two years ago, another company worked on the same site. It moved its production to North Africa because of rising pay and social security costs in Bulgaria.

Svetoslav Bogalinski, business development director, says that firm had 2,200 jobs there. Its workers registered as unemployed, so the town has available workers. He wants every such town to have five or six similar companies, because they create competition and raise living standards. "Right now, one swallow does not make a summer, but this investment will matter for Pleven," Bogalinski told BNT.

Pleven has nearly 8,000 unemployed people, and a local resident says the town has about 80,000 people. Many residents look for work in other towns. One local family leaves town every day: the husband is a machine operator in Sevlievo, while the wife works in the civil service in Lovech. Neither can find suitable work in Pleven.

A machine operator from the town says there is no investment there, and the main employers are clothing makers and small workshops. Another resident says wages are €700 or less, about half those in Sofia, while living costs are even higher.

Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Bulgaria. In the first six months of the year, German firms put more than €372m into the country.