Bulgaria calls for more trade and investment from China

Bulgaria and Shanghai yesterday signed three business cooperation deals that will strengthen business ties while President Rosen Plevneliev called for more trade and investment between his country and China.

"We are open-minded, friendly and willing to cooperate on different levels, no matter if you have big or small projects ... they are all important for us and we will value them," Plevneliev, who was in Shanghai as part of his state visit to China, said at the Shanghai Sino-Bulgarian Business Forum yesterday.

He also proposed more trade and investment between the two countries and suggested that Chinese investors use Bulgaria as a gateway to Europe as it is strategically located.

According to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, trade between Bulgaria and Shanghai more than doubled to US$359 million in 2012, which was nearly one-fifth of the total trade between two nations.

The president also said Bulgaria needs strategic partners to develop its agriculture and food production industry, while there is huge potential for investment in information technology, textile, logistics and raw materials.

He predicted Bulgaria's economy to grow 1.8 percent this year and 3.5 percent in 2015.

The three deals were between the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists of Bulgaria; the Shanghai Pudong Sub-Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Bulgaria Travel and Investment Development Center in China; as well as Shanghai BZ Cosmetic Trading Co and Bulgarian Rose Oil Ltd.