Infrastructure assessment in Veliko Turnovo

The Municipality of Veliko Turnovo is situated in the middle of Bulgaria. The city lies among three mountains, which gives a nice setting. It is the old capital of the country with a long history and beautiful historic sites. The territory of the municipality is 885.36 sq.km with population over 100,000.

At the time of the project, the priorities for the municipality were as follows:

• Tourism development
• Public works, infrastructure building and development
• Preservation and exposition of historic and cultural heritage
• Attracting and encouraging foreign investment
• Preservation and improvement of the level of education.

Veliko Turnovo was partnered with Golden, Colorado, for the purpose of the Resource Cities Program, starting in October 2000. 

Veliko Turnovo had a lot of potential for economic growth if it could build on its advantageous geographical location and rich history of being the old capital of Bulgaria. However, the local economy was weak, and the local businesses had largely suffered from the nationwide decline of economy.  It was difficult to gauge how bad the economy was in Bulgaria, in part because it had a cash economy. 

While tourist attractions are very interesting, they were insufficient to make Veliko Turnovo a real destination at this stage, mainly because the city lacked the necessary insfrastructure to provide a solid background for a steady growth that builds on tourism.

The partners therefore identified the following technical agenda for their partnership: (1) developing a strategic plan for an old military school property; (2) developing a public infrastructure inventory, financial management plan, and presentation material, focusing on the creation of a street/sidewalk infrastructure inventory, a long-term financial management plan, and an assessment of the value of the water and sewer utility system owned by the municipality and installed in 1996.