Development of a Marketing Website for the 14 Municipalities Involved in the Local Economic Development and Marketing of Bulgarian Municipalities Project
І. Summary
While trying to establish contact with potential investors, we realized that the process would be much more effective if the information about the communities is summarized, categorized and published on Internet. Considering the size of the Bulgarian market and the global trends in business relocation, the Bulgarian-American team of the Local Economic Development and Marketing of Bulgarian Municipalities Project decided to have all 14 participant municipalities represented on one marketing website. The availability of one-stop current and dynamic information would make things easier for potential investors and would provide for making an informed decision.
Our goal was to develop a website with a name related directly to its purpose, such as investbg, bgbusiness opportunities, local investment We selected www.invest.bg , a short, logical and popular name for websites of this type.
The target group included investors in all manufacturing and service industries, exploring opportunities for a greenfield operation or a joint venture with Bulgarian companies within the partner municipalities, as well as companies that have already located their business in Bulgaria and want to retain or expand it.
The website was developed in both English and Bulgarian, with an option to have it available in more languages, as we wanted to provide for flawless communication of the information to the different users.
The purpose of the website is not to describe in detail the opportunities in each individual municipality, but to generate interest that would result in a personal contact with the local economic development specialist of the respective municipality or with a representative of the Bulgarian Local Economic Development Partnership.
One of the most important goals was to provide a comprehensive presentation of the business climate in Bulgaria , focusing on production and commerce development opportunities in priority industries.
ІІ. The Project
The Foundation for Local Government Reform has been working to the benefit of the Bulgarian municipalities since 1995. The overall objective of all of its efforts is inevitably quality of life improvement at local level. Realizing the importance of business recruitment, business retention and expansion, job creation and the necessity of identifying alternative funding sources for the municipalities, the Foundation is trying to support municipalities local economic development efforts.
Considering the Bulgarian environment, the insufficient experience in community promotion and negotiations with investors, the prior centralized economic development policy and the need for aggressive steps towards the optimal utilization of municipal resources and the recruitment of national and international business, the Foundation initiated the Local Economic Development and Marketing of Bulgarian Municipalities Project. The project involves 14 Bulgarian municipalities: Silistra , Montana , Pazardzhik, Gabrovo, Sliven , Blagoevgrad, Tryavna, Razgrad, Panagyurishte, Stara Zagora , Karlovo, Dobrich, Haskovo and Pleven . All of these cities established the position of local economic development specialist in their municipal administrations. The people hired for these positions were trained, and will continue to be trained, in economic development models.
Many municipalities had developed their municipal profiles during previous phases of the program (on paper) and use them before various business communities. Each of the 14 municipalities has conducted a self-assessment which describes: present business climate; workforce; education; geographic and natural resources; quality of life; infrastructure; investment opportunities; available buildings and lots. These municipalities realize that it s not only the comprehensive analysis of the community that matters, but also the identification of the appropriate way to present the information to the appropriate recipients.
Therefore, the development of a common marketing website was identified as one of the most critical goals of the project.
The discussions on the name, design and technology of the website took several months and involved all partner municipalities, the American partners and IT experts.
The website is comprised of a general page on Bulgaria and individual pages of the participant municipalities. Maintaining the former is FLGR s responsibility, while maintaining the latter is a responsibility of the local economic development specialists in the respective municipalities.
The Home Page features a horizontal menu that is also available on the individual municipal pages. It provides information about the project team ; business references with information on major transport corridors, ports and airports, five-star hotels in the capital, working hours of business and financial entities, banks and lending institutions, Bulgarian trade representatives offices and national market characteristics; a forum to discuss pressing business-related problems; and a gallery with images from important events and sites.
A vertical menu is comprised of several buttons. The first one of these provides access to the pages of the individual municipalities. Bulgaria is another important button. It provides access to economic data about the country, such growth, foreign investment, banking system, labor market, national business incentives, taxation, investment legislation and infrastructure. A special place in this menu is dedicated to the Bulgarian Local Economic Development Partnership (BLEDP), as well as to links to business support organizations. The page features a search engine that allows search by keyword. A special attention has been paid to the search for available buildings/lots by custom criteria.
The opening of the home page brings up Bulgaria s advantages and priority industries. A map shows Bulgaria s location relative to Europe and cam be zoomed into more detailed maps. Brief information is provided under the map.
The site features a survey that can be amended according to events of the day. A special section is allocated for the latest economic news.
The pages of the individual municipalities contain information on:
Location, proximity to markets, climate and population ;
Form of government and services provided by the local administration ;
Local taxes and fees ;
Workforce education , training , age and employment ;
Educational system existing schools , universities , colleges , foreign language courses ;
Utilities gas, electricity, waste management and disposal ;
Communications information services, Internet service providers, phone companies, postal services ;
Transport system roads, railroads, access to highways, airports and ports ;
Healthcare emergency care , hospitals , medical centers and dentists ;
Culture cultural events and entertainment opportunities ;
Major companies information about foreign and local companies and local financial institutions ;
Relations with partner organizations;
Available buildings - technical specifications and prices;
Available lots.
The horizontal menu, besides the buttons available on the home page, also includes a local business button. The button allows local companies to get registered on the page of the respective municipality and to publish their profile and future plans.
Each municipal page allows the upload of current local economic news and important business projects.
The foreground shows the advantages of each municipality and contact information for the economic development specialist. Every specialist can incorporate a survey in the site and track and analyze the information collected, which is a good way of collecting proposals, opinions and recommendations by businesses and citizens.
Another advantage of the site is the possibility for the publication of ads of Bulgarian and foreign companies, including a choice on how many and which pages to have them published.
All local economic development specialists have similar email addresses that contain the specialist s position, municipality and the name of the marketing website as an extension. BLEDP keeps all incoming and outgoing mail about the partnership in general.
The marketing website was presented for the first time to some 60 guests at a cocktail party in Hanover , Germany , on April 22, 2004 .
ІІІ. Timeline
The development of the website began in the fall of 2003 with a series of discussions, bidding and selection of a developer. Collecting and publishing the information required quite a lot of time as well. The website was then commissioned in April, 2004.
Municipalities that do not provide the required information on time may be excluded from the website. More importantly, however, there is a possibility for new municipalities to be included, subject to preliminary training and study of their resources.
ІV. The Results
Since the English version of the website became accessible , companies from Greece , Turkey , Italy and USA have sent inquiries . Every inquiry is reviewed and answered within the time indicated by the potential investor.
At the same time, the website provided a forum for local companies seeking business partners in the country and abroad as well as for municipal economic development specialists.
The collection of the information and the development of the materials for the website increased the capacity of the local economic development specialists to promote business opportunities and recruit investors. After all, the purpose of the project is to encourage economic activity in the municipalities, which in the long run would result in job creation, higher quality of life and greater revenues to municipal budgets.
V. Conclusion
The main goal of the project was to develop a website that would provide comprehensive information on investment opportunities in 14, and later more, Bulgarian municipalities. The target users include Bulgarian and foreign companies looking for a location for their businesses. The results from the existence of the website so far confirm the need for such a tool. It is up to the partners under the project to preserve it and generate more interest in it, to provide a channel for reliable and current information for the people whose entrepreneurial spirit is the basis for the socio-economic development of the Bulgarian communities.
