NEWS

Bulgaria and China Have Set the Goal of Doubling Their Trade in the Next Five Years

President Rosen Plevneliev called on the Chinese business to invest in Bulgaria and take advantage of the opportunities that Bulgaria offers and thus step on the European market.  In Beijing, the Head of State, who is on a state visit to the People’s Republic of China, opened a joint Chinese-Bulgarian business forum with the participation of more than 300 representatives of 160 Chinese companies and about 40 Bulgarian companies in the sphere of the production and export of wine, the textile industry, high technologies, transport, trade and tourism.

Eight top-level meetings have been held between Bulgaria and China in the past ten years, and in the past five months the President, the Prime Minister and the Parliament chairman have visited the People’s Republic of China. “There is nothing accidental about these facts because it is on the top level that we see the strong potential for encouraging the cooperation between the two countries. Our goal is to have the trade between Bulgaria and China double in the next five years,” Rosen Plevneliev said.

The Head of State recalled that Bulgaria is the fourth Central and East European country that has acquired the status of a multilateral friendly cooperation and partnership with China, after Hungary, Romania and Poland. The President told the business circles in Beijing that China’s Initiative for Cooperation with the Central and East European countries (16+1) is a “real visionary act” and pointed out that there is already competition between the countries in the region in terms of high-quality projects which can be funded with the credit resource worth 10 billion US dollars within the framework of the Initiative. The President also voiced his conviction that the amount of these resources will be increased.

Among the projects that Bulgaria suggests to be preferentially funded is the project for the construction of a hydro facility on the Danube river at Nikopol-Turnu Magurele, the Black Sea highway, the tunnel under Shipka, as well as opportunities for joint work in building bridges across the Danube, concessions of Bulgarian river and sea harbors, Rosen Plevneliev recalled.

Bulgaria has an ambitious program that provides for the construction of 21 industrial zones, the President told the Chinese business. “We offer China to build its enterprises in any of them. Bulgaria is the only EU state through which five trans-European transport corridors pass and the industrial zone in Bozhurishte and the cargo-airport in Stara Zagora give access to a couple of European corridors simultaneously,” the Head of State emphasized. He also highlighted the favorable conditions for foreign investments in Bulgaria, among which are some of the lowest tax rates in Europe both for the business and the citizens, the stable bank system, the macroeconomic stability and the low state debt.

The President expressed his conviction that in the next couple of years Bulgaria will considerably increase the export of Bulgarian agricultural products for China. After a Written Statement on the phytosanitary requirements for the export of agricultural production was signed on 13 January, Rosen Plevneliev said that a similar document will be signed for the export of milk and dairy produce.

“The large business delegation that is accompanying the President in China expressed its conviction that the Bulgarian government will pay due attention to the cooperation between the business circles in the two countries,” Wan Jifey, chief of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade commented, who hosted the forum. In his words, the Chinese side will put extra efforts into “ensuring a balanced development of the bilateral trade cooperation between Bulgaria and China. The Chinese import of Bulgarian goods will be encouraged and the Bulgarian companies will be able to more actively participate in the forums of the Council so as to boost the bilateral trade,” Wan Jifey said.

At the same time the Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest in Bulgaria, which has “a good geographic location, a relatively low cost of labor and excellent natural resources.”

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, together with its partners from Central and East Europe will establish a joint Association for encouraging the trade which will promote the mutual exchange and cooperation between the companies from the two countries, the chief of the organization further said. “Hopefully we will enjoy the support of the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian business associations and companies,” Wan Jifey added.

In the presence of President Rosen Plevneliev, Bulgarian companies established an official cooperation with their Chinese partners.

The Head of State will hold talks in Beijing with Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

On the last day of his state visit to China, 15 January, President Rosen Plevneliev will open a second business forum in Shanghai and will hold meetings with the mayor of the megapolis Yan Sion and representatives of the local government.

In reply to a journalist question regarding the conduct of Attack leader Volen Siderov, the Head of State said that way back on 5 July 2013 he voiced his position on the actions of the Assembly deputy. “Then I was the first politician to voice a clear and adamant position on the Volen Siderov case, given that he was leader of spitz commandos in Sofia which once again scandalized the Bulgarian community,” the Head of State said in Beijing, referring to  a statement he made in 2013 in which he voiced his concern for politics in Bulgaria which is suffering a crisis of values. President Rosen Plevneliv recalled the letter he then received from Bulgarian intellectuals, which read: “Spitz commandos appeared in the streets who claim that they are imposing order in the state by making “citizens’ arrests.” Their leader entered parliament with a gun and a police club and nobody hampered him to make statements in which he called the civil protests  “a coup against statehood” and threatened  that a civil war may break out.” Then thousands of citizens, a lot of media and political entities referred the case concerning the leader of Attack’s actions to the Prosecutor’s Office, Rosen Plevneliev further recalled.

Way back on 5 July the Head of State voiced his hope that the institutions, including the Prosecutor’s Office and Parliament, and the political parties represented in it, will clearly express their position and disapprove of such actions. “If we now keep silent and do not react, conveniently wave our hand and say “So what?” it will be too late after some time,” the President said in his statement on 5 July 2013.