NEWS

President Rosen Plevneliev in Laos to participate in the ninth Asia-Europe Meeting

In Bulgaria's relations with Asian countries, a focus is needed on both business and on education and student exchange. The issue of educating students is a priority for Bulgaria's relations with countries like Vietnam and will be discussed by the President during his forthcoming visit to the Asian country in the second half of February next year. Bulgaria will ask for more scholarships for Bulgarian students in China. This was announced by President Rosen Plevneliev to Bulgarian graduates from Laos at a meeting yesterday in Vientiane, the capital of the country. Among them were graduates of the Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgarian music and art schools, the Wine Institute in Pleven, doctors and mathematicians.

In recent years alone, more than 200 Bulgarian schools have opened abroad, and the first strategy for Bulgarians abroad will be discussed by representatives of the Bulgarian communities around the world at a forum in Brussels under the auspices of Vice President Margarita Popova. The goal is by the end of this year to have a national strategy agreed with Bulgarians abroad. President Plevneliev said that it was necessary to create a database of Bulgarians abroad and it was useful initiative to create a single web platform for dialogue with Bulgarian communities, to provide information about where they are, so that the country’s communication with them can be more effective, as well as the communication among themselves, However, there was a need to be proactive and to exercise initiative, the President said. He emphasised the efforts that Bulgaria is making to maintain close contacts with the Bulgarians in the historical disaspora in Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia, also as a response to the demographic crisis which is a problem for all of Europe.

President Rosen Plevneliev arrived yesterday in the Laotian capital of Vientiane to participate in the Ninth Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the member countries of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). On the first day of his visit, the President will hold a series of meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister of the SR Vietnam, Nguy?n T?n D?ng, the Republic of Korea Kim Hwang-Sik and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong.

At the National Council Office in the capital of Laos, President Plevneliev will be officially welcomed by President of Laos Choummaly Sayasone and will then take part in the ceremony of the ASEM enlargement to include Switzerland, Norway and Bangladesh.

President Plevneliev will attend the opening ceremony of the ninth meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting, and will speak on “Global Economic Challenge: sharing the experience of the financial crisis” in the first plenary session of the forum dedicated to economic and financial questions.

The ninth ASEM summit will be held under the motto “Friends for Peace, Partners for Prosperity”. Among the participants in the forum are the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President of France, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Korea, Latvia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, the Swiss Confederation, the Sultan of Brunei and government and cabinet ministers from countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific.