Chinese Delegation from Dalian City Visited BCCI

Tsvetan Simeonov, President of the BCCI Management Board, met with Chinese delegation representatives from the city of Dalian and discussed the opportunities for developing the trade and economic relations.

Mr Simeonov presented Bulgaria's economy and put an emphasis on the country's strategic location, the opportunities for tourism, as well as the benefits from our accession to Schengen as from 1 January 2025. He stated that now it’s the time to strengthen our cooperation with China in order to be more competitive on the European market. As specific examples, Mr Simeonov cited the need to open direct flights to China, as well as our participation with national stands in some of the bigger exhibitions. The BCCI President shared that China is an important trade partner of Bulgaria. He announced that the Bulgarian-Chinese Intergovernmental Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation is expected to be held next year.

The Head of the Chinese delegation, WANG Lingjie, Vice Chairman of Dalian Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, presented information about the city, which is a large transport, tourist and financial centre of the PRC. She shared that Dalian has an important strategic location in the north-east part of China, with well-developed information and communication technology, digitalisation, science, etc. The following sectors were further presented as possible options for cooperation: production and import of seafood, shipbuilding, pharmaceutical industry and medicine, among others.

In the meeting, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Chinese Council for Promoting International Trade – Dalian and the Bulgarian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr Lachezar Dinev, Chairman of the Joint Chamber, said that this is the right moment to make cooperation with China more active in view of our forthcoming accession to Schengen and in view of the cancellation of the visas for Bulgarian citizens for China as from 1 December 2024.

We would like to remind you that in 2019, BCCI and the Chinese Council for Promoting International Trade in the city of Dalian signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the purpose of supporting bilateral business and this Memorandum expanded the bilateral Agreement from 2012.