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Bulgaria for closer economic ties

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Sergei Stanishev, on Wednesday, turned the spotlight on greater information exchange and building of business confidence to give a thrust to economic cooperation and successful business partnership between the two countries.

Speaking at the Business Forum ‘India and Bulgaria – Towards Stronger Business Partnership’ jointly organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Assocham, he also identified information and communication technology, pharmaceuticals, food and agro-processing, and renewable energy as potential sectors for business and investment between India and Bulgaria.

The Prime Minister said Bulgaria and India shared a very special relation at the human-cultural level, apart from diplomatic State-level contacts.

He said India was a major economic power having a large middle-class and huge potential in high technology and education and observed that the prospects for enhancing economic ties between India and Bulgaria were tremendous.

In the same vein, Peter Dimitrov, Minister of Economy and Energy of Bulgaria, proposed building a strategic partnership between Bulgaria and India, suggesting that Bulgaria can be used by Indian industry as a gateway to the vast European market of over 600 million consumers.

Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs, said the present state of economic engagement between India and Bulgaria did not reflect the potential that existed. He added that while bilateral trade increased by 36 per cent in 2006 to reach a level of $75 million, this represented just a fraction of what the two countries could achieve, given their complementarities in several areas.

Underlining the important role governments had to play to sustain trade, investment and services, Mr. Sharma said India and Bulgaria would sign an agreement on economic cooperation as well as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between agencies promoting small and medium sector enterprises (SMEs) in the two countries.

With Bulgaria now becoming a member of the European Union (EU), the country’s attractiveness for Indian businesses had increased further, the Minister said.

He, however, said that to translate opportunities into concrete business engagements, the two sides would have to work together to facilitate the free flow of businessmen, professionals and tourists by having an enabling visa regime.

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