Joint Bulgarian-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce Established in Sofia

Sofia, June 16 (BTA) - A Joint Bulgarian-Portuguese Chamber of
Commerce was established Tuesday here during the second and last
day of the official visit to Bulgaria of Portuguese President
Anibal Cavaco Silva. Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Silva
opened a joint Bulgarian-Portuguese business forum attended by
more than 70 companies from the two countries.

Addressing the forum, Plevneliev said that 2015 will be a year
of record-high absorption of EU funding by Bulgaria. The head of
State expects that in 2015 this country will absorb as much
funding as the total amount utilized in the first six years of
the previous programming period. Plevneliev recalled that this
year Bulgaria will "unlock" more than 10,000 million leva in
EU-funded programmes for the next period and will absorb more
than 3,000 million euro in programmes from the preceding period.
The total amount of funding for Bulgaria until 2020 stands at
15,200 million euro, he said.

Plevneliev expressed a wish whereby the Portuguese companies
discover the potential of the Bulgarian economy. He said that
despite the turbulences in the region and the political
instability in Bulgaria in the past two years, the national
economy showed resilience - it grew steadily, as did exports,
while unemployment dropped. Plevneliev said the economy is
already showing its better potential: the growth stands at 2 per
cent, exceeding the target of 1 per cent, in a year
unemployment fell to 10.1 per cent from 11.7 per cent.

The President also said that this year Bulgaria made a
categorical commitment for responsible reforms, modernization
and improvement.

Plevneliev said that opportunities for cooperation exist in
farming, food making, tourism, ICT, innovations, infrastructure,
water supply.

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva said once again that
economically, the two countries have not yet attained their
potential. He said Bulgaria and Portugal can and must achieve
more than what the two have attained so far.

In the presence of the two heads of State, a memorandum of
understanding was signed between the Executive Agency for the
Promotion of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, the Bulgarian
Investment Agency and the Portuguese Agency for Investment and
Foreign Trade.