At the end of last year, the Oresharski cabinet assigned the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economy and Energy with the coordination and implementation of a policy of stronger economic ties with promising markets outside the European Union. These are mostly Eastern markets where Bulgaria has got traditionally good relations dating back to the recent past. This new policy has provided relevant context to a few events this week. For the first time following a break of three years, a session was held of the mixed Bulgarian-Algerian Committee for economic, research and technological cooperation. At the session, the Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy Dragomir Stoynev was explicit that this country would expand cooperation with Algeria in the spirit of traditionally good ties that have been in place for decades. During the official visit of the Bulgarian delegation to Algeria, a bilateral Bulgaria-Algeria forum was opened too. The Bulgaria side was represented by seventeen companies with operations in pharmaceuticals, energy, machine-building and consultancy services. As Stoynev put it, the spheres with untapped potential for joint business include construction, trade, agriculture, energy and tourism. The Algerian side confirmed interest in the involvement of Bulgarian companies in the development of that country’s infrastructure. Also this week, Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin paid a working visit to Qatar. The Bulgarian proposal to the emirate was to open its bank in Sofia to service Qatar investments not only in Bulgaria, but in neighboring countries as well, and to promote business contacts. The Qatar side showed interest in the terms for the acquisition of concessions in Bulgaria, more notably in gold mining. During talks the idea was discussed of starting a joint fund aimed to encourage small and medium businesses. And there was a third event speaking of Bulgaria’s increased economic activity directed to the East: the two-day official visit of PM Plamen Oresharski to Azerbaijan where he held high-level talks. Bulgaria is the first country that stands on the way of Azeri gas to Europe, Oresharski said after the talks and highlighted the opportunities for investments of the local gas company SOCAR in Bulgaria with a view to further development of Bulgaria’s gas network. In turn, President Ilham Aliyev said that Bulgarian companies are welcome to Azerbaijan including options for accelerated construction. A summary of a kind of the Bulgarian interests in the East is the formula suggested by PM Oresharski, notably that “good political contacts should continue to develop with a furtherance of economic cooperation”.

English Daniela Konstantinova