The strategic partnership between Bulgaria and the United States is a prerequisite for a far more active economic and investment cooperation, said President Rumen Radev said at a working meeting with the representatives of companies that have invested or are considering making investments in Bulgaria, organized by the Business council for international understanding. During the meeting, the head of state called on the business community in the United States to take advantage of the favourable conditions that our country has established for investors, given Bulgaria's key location, the country's role as a factor of stability in South-eastern Europe, its membership in the EU and NATO, and its highly skilled labour force and its competitive taxation.
"Over the last decades, Bulgaria and the United States have shown that the two countries can be good partners and make achievements in sectors such as defense and security as well as in the development of information technologies", Rumen Radev said. The president pointed out that Bulgaria has preserved its position of an educational hub, considering that Bulgarian students participants in international competitions in mathematics, physics and information technologies have invariably taken the top positions in the ranking. "It is our goal to create opportunities for the young people to stay in Bulgaria to realize their potential. Therefore the institutions support the good business enterprises, especially those in the sectors offering a high added value", the head of state added.
The expansion of the infrastructure in transport and energy is one of the areas in which our country has been trying to catch up with its partners in the EU as this involves significant investments, the president further said. In the words of the head of state, big companies not only from Europe but also from China and other counties have shown an interest in investing in this sector, and this creates a competitive environment offering good opportunities to businesses.
The representatives of the American business raised questions pertaining to the protection of intellectual property, the development of the transport and energy infrastructure in Bulgaria, the development of the defense industry, the prospects that our country reaffirms its position of a technological hub in South-eastern Europe, among other issues.
Representatives of IBM, Motorola Solutions, ViaSat, FEDEX, Comcast, AES, among other corporations, took part in the meeting.