An internationally avowed golf course could render as much as 10 per cent rise to the GDP. "If we assume the optimistic stance and things run smoothly, in April 2009 we will play golf in Kuttina," Sanchez concluded. The Spanish Ferry Group announced the official start of its Kuttina Golf Resort on November 8 at a news conference held just one day after the company received the building permit to initiate construction. The groundbreaking ceremony will hopefully take place in the middle of December, but the actual building works will start in March or April of next year since winters in Bulgaria do not favour construction.

Company president Manuel Ferry Sanchez's two projects in the country, Kuttina Golf Resort and Green Energy (for biomass production), were awarded first-class investment certificates by the Bulgarian Investment Agency (BIA) and have recently been accredited as sustainable development projects by both the Assembly of European Regions and the European Commission. They were the first developments in Bulgaria to receive such a high international evaluation.

Kuttina Golf Resort, the pilot project, located in the northern areas of Sofia Municipality, is emerging as a significant part of the municipality's plan for developing that area of the capital. It will rehabilitate an ex-coal mine into an environmentally-friendly project, boosting the region's landscape, natural environment, and infrastructure, Sofia's chief architect, Petar Dikov, told reporters at the press conference. This project, along with some others in the pipeline, will enhance the prestige of northern Sofia and, in a few years, might even outperform the more developed south, Dikov added.

Kuttina, planned as an urban development with low construction density, will spread on a plot of about 1 700 000 sq m. The residential buildings will occupy a gross actual area of 610 000 sq m. After it is finished, the project will create more than 600 permanent jobs. The complex will use only 20 to 30 per cent traditional energy, the remaining 70 to 80 per cent will be provided by biomass and solar energy. It will have its own waste-water purification plant, which will treat the refuse waters of the compound and the neighbouring villages, Kuttina and Kurilo, and will be reutilised for irrigating the golf course.

Currently, Ferry Group is working on a detailed construction project to be completed soon. MPM Project and BGI Projects are the Bulgarian companies involved in realising the plan. The manager of the design team is Manuel Ferry Louis, Manuel Ferry Sanchez's son, who has already invited a tender to choose a builder. There are eight to 10 solicitations already, among which are the three to four largest Bulgarian building companies, Sanchez told reporters. The confidential terms of the contracts with candidates did not allow them to disclose their identities.

The project plans for the Kuttina Golf Resort golf course is finished and follow the best international standards of Saint Andrews and P.G.A (Professional Golf Association) suited to host international events. An internationally avowed golf course could render as much as 10 per cent rise to the GDP. "If we assume the optimistic stance and things run smoothly, in April 2009 we will play golf in Kuttina," Sanchez concluded.

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