On 22 February 2011 in Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister and his Serbian counterpart opened a business forum organized by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Bulgarian PM Borisov greeted the participants in the forum – over 150 representatives of Bulgarian and Serbian companies and shared the main topics from the talks with his Serbian counterpart Mr. Mirko Cvetkovic, who is on a two-day official visit to Bulgaria.
According to PM Borisov, the governments of Bulgaria and Serbia fully support the business and will cooperate even closer in order to attract financing and to expand the business ties of the two countries. He underlined the cooperation of the two countries in the spheres of infrastructure, transport corridors, innovations, and tourism. PM Borisov said that cooperation within the framework of the Danube strategy is extremely important so that Serbia can join the EU more quickly and effectively.
Serbian PM Cvetkovic greeted the participants and presented an overview of the economic situation in Serbia, stating that the country has been seriously affected by the economic crisis, but in 2010 registered positive trends. Serbia is already working on synchronizing its legislation as a step towards becoming a candidate for EU membership. He added that the Serbian government made an ambitious but achievable plan in this respect. PM Cvetkovic officially invited Bulgarian companies to invest in Serbia. According to him there are several factors which may facilitate mutual economic cooperation: our countries have close history, the languages are similar and communication is easier, and business expenses are small.
For the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the forum was opened by Mr. Georgi Stoev, Vice President. The President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce gave a presentation and outlined the most important data about Serbian economy. Presentations were given by the Bulgarian Investment Agency and the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency. Free Zone Pirot and Region Zrenjanin, which offer very favourable conditions to Bulgarian companies for production plants and representative offices, were also presented.
The Director of Delta Maxi, Mr. Aleksandar Champarevic presented the investments in Supermarkets Piccadilly and Hypermarkets Tempo as a good practice in the bilateral economic relations.