Visit of Mr. Jiří Havlíček, Minister of Trade and Industry, in Bulgaria
11.10.2017 / 10:48 | Aktualizováno: 13.06.2019 / 12:55
Mr. Jiří Havlíček, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, had a meeting with Mr. Emil Karanikolov, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Bulgaria and attended the Czech-Bulgarian Bussines Forum
On September 19, 2017, Mr. Jiří Havlíček, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic had a meeting with Mr. Emil Karanikolov, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Bulgaria and with Mr. Zhetcho Stankov, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Energy. Minister Havlíček as well as Minister Karanikolov had a speech at the Czech-Bulgarian Bussines Forum which was held with the participation of around 70 Czech and Bulgarian businessmen and representatives of professional associations and chambers.
Both ministers appreciated stable level of the economic relations and positiv development of the mutual business, which exceeded 1,1 millions EUR in the last year (2016).
Mr. Havlíček also informed Mr. Karanikolov about new projects, which are going to be realized by Czech companies in Bulgaria and offered experiences of the Czech Republic in the area of economy, which arised from the Presidency of the Czech Republic in the Council of EU in 2009. Bulgarian Presidency will také place in 1st half of 2018.
At the Czech-Bulgarian Bussines Forum, which was organised by the Chamber of Comerce of the Czech Republic and Bulgarian Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Minister Havlíček presented possibilities of the Czech economy, which has a great tradition in the area of industry and nowadays it is oriented on modern technologies and innovations. He informed that Czech companies are interested to cooperate in the process of modernisation of Bulgarian economy for example in the area of power engineering, mechanical engineering, means of transport as well as in the area of information and telecommunication technologies, civil engineering, health service, textile industry or agriculture and food processing industry.
The Czech Minister was accompanied by the representatives of czech companies from the area of mechanical engineering, power engineering, transport, software, food processing industry or cosmetic industry. Czech businessmen met with their Bulgarian partners (B2B) during the Forum.
In the afternoon Minister Havlíček had a meeting with Deputy Minister of Energy Mr. Zhetcho Stankov (as Ms. T. Petkova, Minister of Energy, was in Estonia at the EU ministerial meeting). Besides the topics regarding the future policies in energy and energy security of the EU and supply of gas and oil to the EU, they discussed also problems of Czech companies ČEZ and Energo- Pro which led in the end to the arbitration against the Republic of Bulgaria. That is in the contrast to the positive mutual cooperation which led for example to the supply of the digger provided by the Czech company Noen for the surface coal mines Marica Iztok in January 2016. Deputy Minister Stankov confirmed that the digger works very well and with pleasure received information of Minister Havlíček that company Noen is interested in future contracts regarding mines of Marica Iztok.