Svilena Grazhdanska Bulgarian Construction Chamber (BCC) awarded prizes to the best companies in the sector at the traditional ball on the occasion of the professional holiday celebrated on 26 October – St. Demetrius Day. Hosts of the event at Sofia Hotel Balkan were Lilyana Pavlova, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, and Chairman of the Board of BCC Eng. Svetoslav Glosov. Among the official guests were Ivelina Vasileva, Minister of Environment and Water, chairmen of the parliamentary committees on regional policy, public works and local self-government Naiden Zelenogorski, on legal affairs Danail Kirilov, H.E. Latifa Aharbash, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco in Bulgaria, Chairman of the Board of Road Infrastructure Agency Eng. Lazar Lazarov, Eng. Stoyan Bratoev, Executive Director of “Metropoliten” EAD, Eng. Asen Antov – Executive Director of the National Company “Strategic Infrastructure Projects”, Deputy Mayors of Sofia Municipality Irina Savina and Doncho Barbalov, Denitsa Nikolova, Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works and Head of the Managing Authority of OP “Regions in Growth” , Yana Georgieva, Chief Director of DG Operational Program Environment, Galina Vasileva, Deputy Head of the Managing Authority of OP “Transport” as well as experts from government agencies. The celebration brought together over 280 representatives of leading construction companies and official guests. During the event “Stroitel” newspaper EAD was awarded a certificate for sustainable events management (ISO 20121:2012) by Bureau Veritas. “Stroitel” newspaper, which organizes the logistics of the forums of BCC, is the first company in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe that acquires the prestigious certificate. Under ISO 20121:2012 are certified the Olympic Games in 2012, the festival in Venice, Euro vision 2013, Old Trafford – stadium of English football team Manchester United. The certificate was received by Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Eng. Plamen Pergelov and Procurator and Editor-in-Chief Reneta Nikolova. “I am extremely pleased to congratulate you on our professional holiday – St. Demetrius Day. Above all, I wish you health, strength, courage, luck and enthusiasm that we see every day. We will continue to work together, build and change the image of Bulgaria and the towns and villages,” said in her greeting speech Minister Lilyana Pavlova. “Traditionally on St. Demetrius Day we make a review of the past year and the construction season which only officially we complete on the holiday. I hope hard work will continue from tomorrow until the end of the year. We have a lot of projects. We award the excellent companies but many of them owe more than a prize. I want to thank you for the efforts, for the 24-hour work you put in every site,” she stressed. In her words the sector has resisted despite the difficulties and has shown resilience, will to develop and readiness to take on new challenges and deal with them successfully. “During this year we completed a number of projects, others will soon be ready. We have almost 300 km of new motorways, many sites of water and energy infrastructure. We put money in quite a lot of activities related to the urban, educational, social and cultural environment to improve the appearance of Bulgarian municipalities,” said Pavlova. “Of course, ahead of us are uneasy months until the end of the year to complete successfully the programming period 2007 – 2013 and to be proud of what we have achieved. It is important as Bulgarians, country and industry to be with heads held high, because we showed that we can build with quality and on time and we can realize all these wonderful projects,” she added. According to her, the challenge that faces the industry and MRDPW until 2020 is the successful absorption of the European funds. “I am convinced that our partnership with the Bulgarian Construction Chamber we have so far will continue, to accomplish still successfully the projects and even better. We have more work to do on public procurement. If we are united and help each other with BCC, we can achieve a lot. I wish to do this now – to unite, because only for the construction sector in the coming years there is BGN 10 billion investment. In order to absorb qualitatively and reasonably the funds, we should work together. I wish you a successful new construction year. The awards are well-deserved, because you worked a lot and put a lot of effort. It is a calling to be a builder,” said Minister Pavlova. “Thank you on behalf of the Board of BCC and myself for being together again. Thank you for the good cooperation. I congratulate you, our guests and colleagues, on St. Demetrius Day,” said Chairman Eng. Svetoslav Glosov. “Another hard year has passed, in which projects with European funding from the period 2007 – 2013 were completed. Projects from the period 2014 – 2020 will start in 2016. We will have even more challenges for the industry. I wish health and professional successes to all attendees,” said Eng. Glosov. “On St. Demetrius Day I can express my enormous gratitude and respect to builders. For the past months they have completed the modernization and construction of 43 wastewater treatment plants. They laid 2,550 km of water and sewage network. The construction of 18 regional systems for waste management is completing,” said Minister Ivelina Vasileva. “Builders have experienced difficult times but coped with this task. Considering the past year we can proudly say that through it we paid BGN 1 billion under OP “Environment 2007 – 2013”. Thank you all for the work, efforts and professionalism because we were able to report good results under “OPE 2007 – 2013”. Nearly 98% of the funds were paid from the budget of the operational program,” she said and stressed that in 2016 will start projects for BGN 650 million. The funds will be for the phased projects in the water sector from the old programming period and for 9 completely new. “We continue to rely on builders. Thanks for the wonderful partnership of BCC and that they always honor their commitments,” said Minister Vasileva. “On behalf of the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova I congratulate on the holiday all builders and wish them many more years to continue our work because the results in the city are not small. They are visible. Investments are to the amount of BGN 2.2 billion,” said Deputy Mayor in charge of “Finance” Doncho Barbalov. According to him, work is already underway for establishment of municipal capital program for next year. A total BGN 180 million will be provided only for the underground. Under OP “Regions in Growth” the capital city will apply with projects for BGN 240 million. “We will have a lot of work. I want to wish the members of the Chamber all projects of which Sofia Municipality is contractor to complete on time,” he said. “There is a joke: “How can a builder catch a lion with bare hands? – By hiring a subcontractor.” I congratulate on the holiday all colleagues, despite their rank, masters and workers. Much has been done this year and there is much to be proud of”, said Eng. Lazar Lazarov, Chairman of the Board of Road Infrastructure Agency. The time for awards came after the official greetings. The presenters –Adelina Radeva and Yavor Simov, popular TV faces reminded that in the ranking of BCC are included only companies registered in the Central Professional Register of Builders (CPRB) that followed the procedure under Article 20, paragraph 2 of the Construction Chamber Act for 2014 to 30.09.2015. A total 3,835 companies are included in the race this year. The first group includes 2,797 companies performing high-rise construction (residential, public-servicing and industrial), infrastructure to it, electronic communications networks and facilities. In the second group are 241 companies working on transport infrastructure projects. In the third – 484, involved in energy infrastructure, and in the fourth – 314 companies specialized in public utility infrastructure, hydro-technical construction and environmental protection. Winners are determined by a three-member committee under the declared information from the annual reports for 2014 in the electronic system of CPRB and the specified assessment indexes according to Article 3, paragraph 2 of the Rules of the annual ranking. The committee is headed by Eng. Nikolai Stankov – Deputy Chairman of BCC and Chairman of the Regional Office of BCC – Sofia. Vice Chairman is the Executive Director of BCC Eng. Ivan Boykov and member – Georgi Grancharov, head of the Central unit “Register” to the Chamber. Among the evaluation criteria with highest weight is “Net sales” for which companies receive 15 points. Then follow “Average staff for the last financial year” with 10 points and “Tangible fixed assets for the last financial year’ with 5 points. From the ranking pursuant to Article 8, paragraph 3 of the Rules is excluded builder “Solarpro Holding” JSC which in 2013 and 2014 was awarded with the gold. The award for large builders in the first group – “High-rise construction (residential, public-servicing and industrial), infrastructure to it, electronic communications networks and facilities” won “Glavbolgarstroy” AD. The silver was for “Geostroy” AD and the bronze – for “Vodstroy 98” AD. In section medium and small builders the gold received respectively “Lirex BG” and “Sienit invest” Ltd. In the second group – “Building of transport infrastructure” the big builders that won are Trace Group Hold AD. Winners of the silver are Hydrostroy AD and of the bronze GBS – Infrastructure Construction AD. The prizes in Medium and Small Companies are for “Victoria Trans – 2007” Ltd and “Farmville” EAD.  In the third group – “Building of energy infrastructure” the big winner is “Filkab” AD. The silver was for “Atomenergoremont” AD, and the bronze for “Ataro clima” Ltd. The first places in Medium and Small Companies are for “Т and D Engineering” Ltd and “Solarpro OM” AD. “Geotechmin” Ltd took the Golden Award for large builders in the fourth group – “Construction of public infrastructure, hydro-technical construction and environmental protection”. Following are “Stanilov” Ltd with silver award and “Raicommerce construction” EAD – with bronze. Winners in the Middle builders category are “Hydromat” Ltd and in Small builders – “Nek group” Ltd. After the official part, in which the winners of this year “Oscars” became clear for construction practices, that proved with quality and large scale of implemented projects the rock legends from “The Foundation” and dancers from Dance Academy took care for the good mood of the guests.