The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted an event to present the transformation of the Central Department Store in Sofia /TSUM/ to businesses and journalists. The building will be internally renovated, restructured and turned into a unique place to consolidate its position as an emblem of the capital.
BCCI Vice President Dr Vasil Todorov stated that the Central Department Store is a special place both for the residents of Sofia and for all Bulgarians. "I am glad that the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be directly related and involved in the change and in the intelligent renovation of TSUM to the benefit of business and society, with the purpose of raising the tourist and investment attractiveness of the capital," Mr Todorov added.
The TSUM building in the centre of Sofia will be transformed in two stages and will include exhibition halls, a Museum of Rose Oil, shops, eateries, a five-star hotel, a spa centre, a shared workspace and an accelerator programme. The building is intended to be a marketing, commercial and tourist hub to popularise Bulgaria as being a desirable destination, as Ahmed Nasr announced, the founder and director of Antika World Company which manages the building transformation Project. Presentation: here.
The facade of the building will be completely preserved and the interior will have very well considered innovations made. For the Project, the Company will use architects from Bulgaria, Egypt, France and the Netherlands.
The Project envisages an exhibition with replicas of Egyptian monuments which gives future opportunities to organise cultural events there.
According to the Egyptian Ambassador in our country, H.E. Nader Saad, who was one of the participants in the presentation, the Project will bring back not only the glory and splendour of TSUM, but it will be a living embodiment of the growing business and commercial ties between Bulgaria and Egypt. He noted the positive development in bilateral relations a few months ago, namely with the first meeting of the joint economic commission held on 10 February this year in Cairo, in which six Bulgarian ministers participated and bilateral agreements were signed. Egypt has the unique place of being Bulgaria's biggest trading partner in the trade with the Middle East and Africa with a turnover of more than 1.3 billion dollars, the Ambassador noted further.
The event was also attended by Dr Khaled Hanafi, General Secretary, Union of Arab Chambers, and H.E. Khalid Emara, a former Ambassador of Egypt in Bulgaria.
The event ended with many questions asked by the present journalists.