Bulgaria-Cyprus: Related economies and common challenges
For the second time the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomes the current President of the Republic of Cyprus with extremely high interest from the business from Bulgaria and Cyprus. This is what the president of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov said at the opening of the Business Forum "Bulgaria – Cyprus – related economies and common challenges". The event started with the participation of Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev and the president of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades.
Simeonov stressed that from the previous visit and concomitant business forum /in 2016/ the exchange between the two countries grew by almost 80%, and for the first 10 months of 2019 it was 195.8 million EUR. For this period there is an increase of 25% of the Cypriot tourists in Bulgaria.
The president of the BCCI said that in his daily work the Chamber of Commerce assists the Bulgarian and Cypriot companies and a total of 220 companies with Cypriot participation and 148 commercial representations are registered in the Trade Register of the Chamber of Commerce.
Indicative of the potential of joint economic cooperation are also the places of Bulgaria and Cyprus in several international rankings. The countries occupy close positions and this further encourages the convergence of both economies. Cyprus leads on low taxes, environmental protection, property security, e-government, and on the Global Innovation Index. Bulgaria is at the forefront of the index for economic freedom, attractiveness of venture capital, gender equality, globalisation, global digital competitiveness, etc.
In his speech, during the opening of the Bulgarian-Cypriot business Forum, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev expressed the general objective of the two countries to deepen cooperation in energy, tourism and the economy, which against the background of the great interest among the businesses present at the forum seems more and more achievable.
He stressed that Cyprus is our important economic and trade partner and the bilateral turnover has sustained growth. "Cyprus occupies the 34th place in the import of Bulgaria and this is far from the potential of the two countries. The forum is an important step in deepening cooperation, increasing the commercial turnover and looking at the joint development of new technologies ", the president said.
„The event can give new perspectives and parameters in this direction. Bulgaria offers a number of opportunities in services, construction, real estate, agriculture, processing industry. In the country, the Fintech industries develop violently. Bulgaria is already a leader in the Eastern Europe region by number of companies and the nature of the projects that are under development. Bulgaria is building a sustainable start-up ecosystem and this is acknowledged everywhere", Radev said.
The President of Bulgaria also devoted special attention to the tourism sector, in which Cyprus has important achievements, and the Bulgarian business can strive for more sustainable presence in Cyprus.
The President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades also addressed the participants in the Forum – more than 100 representatives of the business on both sides, saying that the two business communities strive for cooperation of mutual interest. Strong friendly relationships, common principles and values are an excellent basis for this relationship. Cypriot companies made over 2 billion EUR investments in Bulgaria, and trade is one of the traditional pillars in the relations of the two countries, stressed Anastasiades.
Bulgaria and Cyprus have signed over thirty bilateral agreements in various areas that contribute to the creation of a dynamic cooperation framework.
Two cooperation agreements between the BCCI and the Cypriot CCI were signed in the presence of the two presidents, with a focus on supporting the bilateral business and in the field of resolving commercial disputes. The Bulgarian-Cypriot Business Association and the Cyprus-Bulgarian Business Association have also signed a memorandum of understanding.
The deputy chairman of the Cyprus CCI Othonas Theodoulou expressed the readiness of the Organization to continue to provide the necessary assistance to the business on both sides.
Presentations of the economic and investment environment in Bulgaria and the business climate and economic trends in Cyprus were made by the Deputy Executive Director of the Bulgarian Investment Agency, Madjide Ahmedova and the president of the Cyprus-Bulgaria Business Association and member of the board of Baker Tilly Andreas Pittakas.
The Forum continued with extremely active bilateral business meetings in the fields: trade with feeding stuffs, warehouse activities, property management, real estate investments, consultancy services – legal, accounting, tax services, investments in the aviation sector, production and trade with electrical appliances, port and infrastructural construction, etc.
