On Friday, Hewlett-Packard announced with the Bulgarian president, Boyko Borisov, that it will be expanding its outsourcing services to Bulgaria.

There are currently 3,200 people working for HP in Bulgaria and it is hoped that the expansion will result in an additional 2,000 new job positions for engineers and qualified personnel.

Over 30 countries were competing for the investment which is a HP initiative and was not set up with the aid of any EU funding. Sasha Bezouhanova, HP public administration director for central and eastern Europe, would not announce the figures of the investment as exact expenses could not be planned. The recruitment for the centre will start immediately and the centre should start working at full capacity next year.

Borisov said: "More than 300 highly qualified Bulgarians living abroad have returned to work for the HP centre here because the salaries are better than what they have received in the countries they have been working in. After the new job positions are open, even more people will return.”

HP has announced that the development of the centre would be a good investment in education as well. At present, the company is cooperating with three Bulgarian universities for general education programs.