Ahead of the European Union (EU)-India Summit (to be held in New Delhi in October), India is trying hard to explore new avenues to boost trade ties with Bulgaria.
As the Bulgarian-Indian business forum began in Sofia on Monday, senior officials of the two countries got an opportunity to prepare future plans for strengthening bilateral trade ties. Speaking at the opening of the forum, Deputy Economy Minister of Bulgaria Alexander Manolev said that the Indian companies were eager to invest more than USD 55 million in short-term projects in the European country and Bulgarian firms, too, have the potential to do business in India.

The minister welcomed the Indian companies’ decision to invest a huge amount in the “poorest EU member state”, saying: “For us, India is an important economic partner in the Asian region, with the strong growth of commodity exchange and Bulgarian exports being indicative of potential and mutual interest.” He claimed that the volume of bilateral trade has grown almost three times, from USD 79 million in 2006 to USD 215 million in 2016, over the last 10 years.
Manolev expressed satisfaction over the successful completion of several Indian projects, such as ‘Namdhari Seeds’ in the field of agriculture, ‘Elder Pharmaceuticals’ in pharmaceutical sector and ‘Sinegand’ (or Cine Grand) in the film industry, in the Balkan nation.

Manolev also thanked India for helping Bulgaria in developing the information technology (IT) sector. He told the audience that India also decided to invest a huge amount of money in this particular sector. “The advantages of the IT and outsourcing sector in our country are also appreciated by the Indian investors,” stressed the minister.
Since 2008, Bangalore-based outsourcing (BPO) firm Sutherland Global Services has opened four business centres in Bulgaria and also employed a total of 1,600 people to serve the European market in more than 16 European languages. Another Indian company, Feuji, opened a centre in the Bulgarian capital in 2010 for outsourcing IT services. Manolev said that although Feuji currently has about 50 employees, the number of appointed professionals could reach 100 by the end of 2017 and 300 in 2019.

Indian Ambassador to Sofia Puja Kapoor

Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to Sofia Puja Kapoor urged business leaders of the two countries to use the full potential in the bilateral economic ties, stressing that the ‘friendly’ political relations between Bulgaria and India would allow them to create a ‘win-win’ situation. She expressed hope that the memorandum of co-operation – signed between President of the Balkan-Indian Business Association Krasimir Angelov and the executive director of the ECSEPC, the Indian Council for the Promotion of Electronics and Computer Software Exports on the first day of the forum – would help the Indian and Bulgarian business leaders continue the upward trend in bilateral trade relations.

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Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das