The first official visit by President Rosen Plevneliev to the United States has begun
The first official visit by President Rosen Plevneliev to the United States began with a meeting in Seattle with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the meeting, it was emphasised that innovation and development of industries with high added value is the future of Bulgaria, and the country is in a very good position with its macro-economic performance and research potential.
Gates said that attractive forms of education, particularly online education and training of teachers, are the basis for developing a knowledge base. Countries like Bulgaria, he said, should have a few elite universities, to develop focus areas, and science and engineering are the main factors that create growth and increase people’s wealth.
President Plevneliev and Bill Gates discussed some of the leading projects involving Bulgaria and funded by the Foundation. The President praised the results of the “Global Libraries Bulgaria” project, which is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Culture and the UNDP. The programme has a total budget of $48 million and aims to facilitate access to information, knowledge, communications, digital content and services through a network of public libraries. So far nearly 1000 Bulgarian libraries, mainly in small and medium-sized towns, are equipped with internet under the project, and more than 70 per cent of these are in villages.
During the meeting, Bulgaria’s scientific potential in health, food production control and training of medical specialists, within the programmes of the Gates Foundation in Africa, was discussed. Key among these are programmes for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, the early diagnosis of cancer, control of foodstuffs of animal origin, and others.
On the second day of his visit to the US, President Rosen Plevneliev will have a series of meetings with representatives of American business in Seattle. He will have a business breakfast with more than 40 business representatives in the field of information technology and infrastructure. The President will take part in a roundtable on information technology at the Rainer Club where he will present the Sofia Tech Park project. Later, President Plevneliev will attend a reception at the Pacific Institute in Seattle and will meet with the Bulgarian community and business in the city, then will travel to San Jose.