Bulgaria hopes to be gateway for Vietnamese products to EU

Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue (right) receiving Bulgarian Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov 

On September 18^th, Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Vuong Dinh Hue received Bulgarian Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov on his visit in Vietnam. At the reception, the two sides hoped to boost bilateral cooperation in various fields, especially economics.

Deputy PM Hue said Vietnam and Bulgaria have a good friendship tradition which is shown through state-level visits of leaders of the two sides and the close cooperation at international and regional forums, especially within the framework of the United Nations, ASEAN-EU cooperation and ASEM.

However, despite two-way export turnover reaching USD100 million a year, the trade relations are not stable. Thus, the two sides should cooperate to boost trade exchange and investment in hi-tech agriculture, in order to facilitate Vietnamese agricultural products to enter Bulgaria.

He asked Bulgaria to support the official implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and soon organize the 24th meeting of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Intergovernmental Committee on economic and science-technology cooperation to discuss how to expand economic and trade links between the two nations in the coming time.

Minister Emil Karanikolov expressed his thanks for the hospitality of the Government and people of Vietnam, while affirming the Bulgarian Government hailed the socio-economic achievements of the country in the renewal period. Bulgaria is actively promoting the EU to sign the EVFTA, and will be one of the first EU countries ratifying this agreement in Parliament.

He also informed about his working sessions with the Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade, representatives from the Hanoi People’s Committee, and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group./.