Bulgaria turns into a focus for Bavarian investments. The reasons for the enhanced interest are the attained political stability and the visible efforts of the Bulgarian Government for the conduct of key reforms in spheres as the judiciary and the public administration. This became clear at a meeting of the Minister of Economy Bozhidar Lukarski with the Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs, Media, Energy and Technology Ilse Aigner.
”The political stability and economic growth, which we managed to attain for only eight months from the composition of the new Government turns us into a perspective destination for German and Bavarian investments”, Minister Lukarski indicated. According to his words these advantages are particularly tangible against the background of what is happening in Greece, Macedonia and Romania. The policies implemented by the Bulgarian Government have the support of Minister Aigner who declared that there will be interest in investments on the part of Bavaria. “Our companies seek stability and effective public administration”, she declared indicating that the IT sector, the machine building and the automotive industry will be the focus in the direction of the investment flows to Bulgaria. A visit of a business delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Minister Aigner, Franz Josef Pschierer, which already nearly 40 Bavarian companies have announced their participation in, is forthcoming during the month of October as well. The possibility for the conclusion of a Memorandum for Cooperation between the InvestBulgaria Agency (IBA) and the relevant institutions from the German part – Invest in Bavaria and Bayern International for the encouragement of the investments of Bavarian companies in our country was also discussed at the meeting. The Executive Director of IBA, Stamen Yanev, indicated that such cooperation could also be valuable for Bavarian and German companies with productions in Greece, which they consider moving to Bulgaria in view of the crisis.
The introduction of dual training in our country was also discussed at the meeting as a sphere for potential cooperation between Bulgaria and Bavaria. Germany finances joint projects for the introduction of the system with 11 states, which Bulgaria could also be included in. According to the words of Minister Aigner the first step will be to train specialists who should apply the German experience for applying the model to the Bulgarian reality. In this connection she proposed the conduct of trainings for such staff in Germany who consequently shall apply the German experience in Bulgaria. As at this time the practice of the dual training is realized by separate companies in our country.
“A lot of Bavarian companies saw what the potential in Bulgaria is and invest in a long-term manner. The Bavarian success is also due to Bulgaria”, State Secretary Pschierer indicated at an economic forum, which Minister Lukarski also got involved in. He added that thanks to the reforms, which the Bulgarian Government carries out, there is a potential for development of the bilateral relationships and Minister Aigner will do her best to increase the contacts between the two countries. He added that the digitalization in several main directions – industry, mobility networks, IT security, energy, health care and media will be a focus in the economic policy of Bavaria. According to his words there are interesting potential partners in the sphere of biotechnologies and solar modules in Bulgaria and Sofia will be an important destination for the Bavarian companies.
Representatives of companies in the IT sector, the automotive industry, the pharmacy, the production of energy from renewable sources, the transport and in particular the railway transport and the concession of Sofia Airport, which Munich Airport shows interest in, declared their interest in investments in Bulgaria at the forum.
The main issues of the Bavarian companies were related to the availability of qualified working staff and the measures for encouragement of start-up companies and of the small- and medium-sized enterprises.