Municipality

Sofia Municipality is a place that can be described with only one word "diversity". Diversity generating knowledge in every respect: high science among serious illiteracy; Ancient history among monuments of timelessness; Patriotism under foreign flags of streets with foreign names; The beauty of history among the grayness of the panel lifestyle; High spiritual culture in a compromising material environment; Unique innovators among cohorts without vision; A small group of entrepreneurs among the multitude of the crowd; Low unemployment, but also low productivity of workers. This poses to the municipality not only interesting issues but also serious challenges. Their solution requires the accumulation of a lot of knowledge.

Here is what we know about Sofia through the eyes of various international charts:

• 109 place (out of 120 major cities in the EU) according to the Innovation Index of the Economy (2010);
• 30th place in economic development in the world in 2014 by 300 cities, forming half of global GDP;
• The only European city in the top ten preferred destinations for outsourcing ICT and business processes in the world;
• 3rd place in Europe by number of start-ups set up in 2014 (after London and Dublin);
• 10th place in the world according to the British publication Huffington Post based on three studies:
  • a survey by HSBC Bank's Expat Explorer for assessing the ease of balancing careers with family life;
  • Eurostat Urban Europe report, including statistics and quality of life studies;
  • InterNations Expat Insider consultation on the ease of establishing and creating friendships;
• 90th among the world's best-developed cities, out of a total of 130 cities surveyed in 55 countries - according to a prestigious business school ranking in Spain, 50 indicators in 10 different areas such as management, urban planning, technology, environment and transport;
• 115 places in the ranking of the best cities to live in the world from 230 cities worldwide (first of all Vienna) and 182 place for the most expensive cities for foreigners (at prices of 200 goods and services in 300 locations worldwide) According to the Mercer analyst's ranking;
• The most polluted capital in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency;
• International Film Festival Sofia International Film Festival is accredited by the FIAPF and included in the ranking of the 50 world top-festivals from Variety Magazine;
• The Medical University of Sofia is 1,033 of the total of 80,000 medical universities in the world and second of all higher education institutions in Bulgaria. First place in Bulgaria is Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski;

Sofia Municipality has a bbb credit rating, which allows it to attract investments under very good conditions. It participates in the implementation of various national and European projects related to culture, knowledge and innovation through the Association for Development of Sofia (http://www.sofia-da.eu/), such as Inovridge and others.