BCCI was a host of a meeting of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry under the Three Seas Initiative

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was a host of a special meeting of the CCIs under the Three Seas Initiative on the topic “The role of CCIs and companies from energy, transport and digitalization sectors in the Three Seas Initiative”.  The meeting was a part of the Three Seas Sofia Summit and Business Forum (8-9 July 2021), which was attended by presidents and heads of delegations from the 12 EU member states and strategic partners - the United States, the European Commission and Germany.

At the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, President of the Republic of Bulgaria – Rumen Radev welcomed the presidents and heads of government from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Greece and Germany.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and EC Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager also participated in the summit. A video address from US President Joseph Biden was presented.

Tsvetan Simeonov, the President of the BCCI was a host of the meeting of the CCIs and officially addressed the representatives of the CCIs from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia participating in the meeting, as well as the company representatives from the main sectors: transport, energy and digitalization. He explained that CCIs and the Business Forum aim to reach companies that want to do business and grow in the countries of the Initiative. Attracting companies from the USA, Germany and Greece as potential partners has a positive effect.  The discussion was focused on the 3SI priorities, as well as the developments in regard to the establishment of the 3SI Investment fund.

The representatives of CCIs have signed a Joint statement with the following provisions:

To intensify the cooperation established within the Network of the Chambers of Commerce of the 3SI for faster overcoming of the economic crisis;

To facilitate the pragmatic development of the 3SI;

To work closely with other Chamber organizations - ICC, EUROCHAMBRES, BSEC Business Council, joint US Chambers in the 3SI countries for maintaining synergy between the 3SI goals and the EU policies;

To encourage the participation of the businesses in investment projects of value for the 3SI.

More than 400 representatives of Bulgarian and foreign business participated in the business forum that had four separate panels on energy, innovation, transport, and digitalization, as well as a special panel focusing on the 3SI Investment Fund.