SHAPING THE IMAGE OF BULGARIA AS FDI DESTINATION IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: THE COURSE AFTER 1989

The purpose of this article is to investigate the case of Bulgaria as a destination for attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). An in depth analysis provides the overall picture as far as the economic level and the development policies that the country followed after 1989, as well as the FDI and the level of the country’s competitiveness level highlighting/pointing out advantages and disadvantages. A formulated model of Bulgaria as an attractive destination for FDI is developed through this analysis. The paper concludes that Bulgaria may offer a friendly environment for establishing FDI but there are important issues/problems that concern the ability of the political power and capacity to design and implement development policies and the lack of urban infrastructures and technology which are major factors for attracting FDI. Yet, the overall effort to promote the image of the country as an investment destination for the period of 2007-2012 includes actions that could solve the above issues/problems or could be part of the solution for these problems