The British business circles may have serious prospects for establishing partnerships with Bulgaria in the sectors of information and communication technologies and infrastructure and in the car industry. This is what became clear at the British-Bulgarian business forum which President Rosen Plevneliev opened in London and which is attended by about 60 representatives of the business circles in the two countries.
The information and communication technologies sector has strong foundations in Bulgaria and the region, President Rosen Plevneliev said. In the past six years the IT branch has been one of the engines of the Bulgarian economy and has achieved an average annual growth of 10 percent. Moreover, Bulgaria is a regional center in the high technologies sector. “The Bulgarian companies are more ambitious, more confident and actively seek partnerships,” the President emphasized.
Infrastructure is another promising sector in which the cooperation with the British business circles can be encouraged. “In our region politicians are under pressure to pool efforts to ensure greater cohesion and integration,” the Head of State commented. He provided an example with 1.5 million Bulgarians who go on holidays to Greece every year and more than a million Romanian tourists that annually visit Bulgaria. The people in Southeastern Europe no longer believe in the term “balkanization,” but consider the region as a place of peace and prosperity,” Rosen Plevneliev said.
The President also focused on the potential for promoting cooperation in the car industry. In his view, the development of the branch in Bulgaria offers prospects for the contractors who design and work as credible partners of big world trademarks. The President pointed out that there are research and development departments in almost all companies in the industry, which, coupled with the talented Bulgarian specialists, creates a lot of opportunities for establishing future partnerships.
The United Kingdom ranks fourth among the big investors in Bulgaria, having invested 2.5 billion euros in the 2006-2012 period. This comprises six percent of the total amount of foreign direct investments in Bulgaria for the same period, which reach 40 billion euros invested mainly in road and railway infrastructure, multimodal transport and ecology.
Currently the British business may become part of the economic change in Bulgaria and the region of Southeastern Europe. In the President’s opinion, this fact places our country in the middle of one of the successfully developing regions in the world.
On the second day of his official visit to Great Britain, President Rosen Plevneliev will hold talks with Foreign Secretary William Hague and with Matthew Hancock, Minister for skills and enterprise.
As patron of the International Award of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Head of State will hold a meeting with the Chief of the Board of Directors and the members of the managing council of the International Award of the Duke of Edinburgh foundation. Rosen Plevneliev will visit a school in London, where he will meet young people, taking part in the program of the International Award.