President Rosen Plevneliev acquainted representatives of the Hungarian business in Budapest with the opportunities Bulgaria provides for doing business in the country and the conditions that our country offers to foreign investors. During the forum the head of state emphasized that many Hungarian companies have made successful investments in the banking and in the pharmaceutical sectors and in telecommunications.
Later the President told journalists that the business circles in Hungary have shown interest in the developments of clusters in different spheres of the Bulgarian economy and above all in the spheres of high technologies, logistics, agriculture and food production. “Bulgaria will do its best to spark the interest of potential investors by pursuing specific policies to this effect as well,” Rosen Plevneliev said.
The head of state was adamant that the success our country has achieved in improving infrastructure and the business environment and the forthcoming construction of an e-government will put Bulgaria in a favorable light in the eyes of the foreign investors.
At the meeting held between President Pleveniev and Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics , the two debated the topics of achieving a real integration of the Central and South-Eastearn European countries using instruments such as the EU Cohesion policy and the potential of the Danube strategy.
The President reiterated that the creation of a single energy market between Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which is positively viewed by Poland and Romania, will have a stabilizing effect on the energy security in Central and Eastern Europe. “Therefore it is high time that Bulgaria clearly voiced its interest and started integrating in this big regional energy market,” the President said. He added that the construction of the gas link with Romania was underway.
The head of state pointed out that the extension of the dialogue within the framework of “Visegrad plus” by including Bulgaria and Romania is extremely important. Within the framework of such a dialogue, the development of the projects for the construction of the Nabucco and South Stream pipelines is due to be debated, which will consolidate the positions of the participating countries. Rosen Plevneliev added that Hungary had already prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment, which will soon be done in Bulgaria.
Taking new measures to fight youth unemployment and expanding the existing EU programs in this sphere was also debated during the meeting held between Rosen Plevneliev and Tibor Navracsics. According to the head of state, the EC should be more flexible in specifying the criteria for participation in the programs for fighting youth unemployment. Rosen Plevneliev once again called for providing chances to the EU member states to counteract unemployment by using the funds allocated under other European programs.