A General Meeting was held by the Bulgarian-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry /BUCI/ at BCCI. The event was officially opened by Lilia Ivanova, President of BUCI, who thanked for the efforts made by the members of the Chamber in the last couple of years. She gave an overview of the economic data on the trade between Bulgaria and Ukraine, sharing that 2023 saw a decline in the exchange of goods compared to the previous year, and presented the structure of the import and export in recent years. Lilia Ivanova emphasised that, over the past 2-year period, the BUCI team has been working on establishing connections with partners from Ukraine and on recruiting new members. The specific cases of support include providing assistance to Ukrainian companies in Bulgaria in making contacts with the banks, informing the institutions about the difficulties when carrying out land transport to and from Ukraine and - through the Ukrainian-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry - informing the Ukrainian business partners about business initiatives of our companies. The most significant events in the Chamber activity are the two organised business forums - the Regional Business Forum in Rousse and the Business Forum in Sofia, with the latter bringing together about 90 Bulgarian and Ukrainian companies.
Sergey Marusenko, Deputy President of the Ukrainian-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UBCCI) and member of BUCI, thanked for the assistance, rendered by BCCI and the Joint Chamber. He presented ideas and views about boosting the activity of the Bulgarian-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and about popularising the Chamber activity among the Ukrainian community in Bulgaria.
Tsvetan Simeonov, President of BCCI, highly appreciated the efforts of the BUCI Heads to boost the activities of the BUCI and expressed the readiness of BCCI to provide assistance to the businesses from Bulgaria and Ukraine. He said that the continuing military conflict in Ukraine shall not discourage the business and the development of the trade and economic relations between the two countries.
During the meeting, Lilia Ivanova was reelected as President of BUCI for a new 2-year period and Dimitаr Delchev, a partner in Eurolex Bulgaria Lawyer’s Company, was elected as Deputy President. A Report on the BUCI Activity for the period 2023-2024 was adopted, as well as an Activity Programme and a Financial Plan for the year 2025.