Business delegation led by BCCI took part in the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) business forum

A business delegation led by the President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov, took part in the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) business forum, which was held in Bucharest on 17 and 18 September.

The event accompanied the two-day summit of the Three Seas Initiative, in which the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev took part.

The initiative includes 12 EU Member States, located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.

The event was officially opened by the President of Romania - Klaus Iohannis who expressed hope that the Business Forum would become a platform for sharing projects of mutual interest, adding that connectivity between the 12 Member States of the Initiative will bring cohesion and stability to the EU as a whole.

"Without integration and connectivity, we cannot achieve a faster convergence and erasure of the huge differences that still exist between Eastern and Western Europe," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said.

During the forum, a Joint Statement on the creation of the Network of the Chambers of Commerce of the Three Seas Initiative was signed. Tsvetan Simeonov signed the statement on the Bulgarian side and took active participation in the ensuing meetings and discussion.

A Letter of Intent in relation to the establishment of Three Seas Fund by the development banks of the Member States was also signed.

The President of BCCI participated with a presentation in the session “The 3SI as catalyst towards the cohesion and convergence of the EU as a whole. The Three Seas Investment Fund”. He pointed out the importance of the initiative for the strengthening of the economic and political relations in the north – south, strengthening the transatlantic economic cooperation and restoring economic ties with Africa. Regarding the establishment of the Investment Fund, Simeonov said that the selection of the projects that will be implemented is of particular importance and that they should be of mutual interest to the Member States and attractive for the investors.

Tsvetan Simeonov recommended that, in addition to the Heads of State and the chambers of commerce and industry of the Member States, representatives of the scientific community and the financial institutions should also be included in the initiative from Bulgaria, because no financing of our projects can be expected unless a Bulgarian bank participates. Video HERE

The 30-member business delegation, led by BCCI, took part in the bilateral meetings which focused on transport, energy and communications. Over 600 companies from the Member States of the Initiative, as well as the United States and the Western Balkan countries and the Eastern Partnership, took part in the following business talks.