Serbian Ambassador to Bulgaria Zeljko Jovic has advocated taking economic co-operation between Serbia and Bulgaria to the next level, stating that the two countries currently use only 20% of the available business opportunities, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BC CI) announced today.
“We need to improve our partnership and establish new contacts, so that Serbia and Bulgaria can come out of the crisis better prepared and with common goals,” the Serbian diplomat said at a virtual business conference organised by BC CI , which involved about 60 senior executives from companies from two neighbouring states. BC CI President Tsvetan Simeonov stressed that bilateral relations are based on good neighbourliness, business co-operation traditions, continuity of commodity flows and investments, according to Bulgaria’s BTA news agency.
Bulgarian Ambassador to Serbia Radko Vlajkov noted that bilateral trade has increased by 58% over the past four years.
“It is understandable that due to the corona pandemic, the data for the first half of 2020 is not the first time that the corona pandemic has been released,” he said. 11.1% decline in bilateral trade compared to the first half of last year. Political relations between Sofia and Belgrade are better than ever before,” Vlajkov said, calling the positive climate an opening space for a significant strengthening of trade and economic relations.
According to Mihailo Vesovic, director of strategic analyses, services and internationalisation at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, both sides are interested in improving bilateral ties, even though 2020 is the year of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, RTV reports.
“More than 3,000 companies on both sides maintain continuous contacts,” Vesovic added.
Bulgarian investments in Serbia exceed 20m euros, according to the BTA agency.
