On the morning of January 16, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative of China International Trade Yu Jianhua, together with Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Nikolova, attended the Bulgaria-China Business Forum in Beijing and delivered a speech.

Yu Jianhua said in his speech that the year2019 witnessed the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bulgaria. In July 2019, President Xi Jinping held a meeting with visiting President Radev, and raised the bilateral relationship between China and Bulgaria to strategic partnership. The important consensus reached by the heads of the two countries pointed the direction for practical cooperation between the two sides.

Yu Jianhua pointed out that China has always firmly supported the process of European integration and the solidarity and development of the European Union, and that the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) is an important component of and a useful supplement to China-EU cooperation. Since the establishment of the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European Countries in 2012, China and Bulgaria have made positive progress in cooperation in various fields such as trade, investment, agriculture and infrastructure. At present, the growth of the world economy is slowing down, and the multilateral trading system is facing major challenges. Bulgaria and China are facing considerable development pressure, so it is time to deepen China-Bulgaria economic and trade cooperation. China is willing to work with Bulgaria to explore the huge development potential in joint construction of the Belt and Road under the new positioning of bilateral relations, and to push the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries to a new level, so as to add new impetus to China-EU cooperation.

Nikolova said that there is huge cooperation potential between Bulgaria and China in the fields of infrastructure, energy, technological innovation, new energy vehicles, agri-food, tourism, and SMEs. Bulgaria is willing to strengthen communication and exchanges with China under the framework of bilateral and China-CEEC cooperation, and to promote the two countries to achieve more pragmatic economic and trade results.

About 180 representatives from the governments and the business community of China and Bulgaria attended the forum. After the forum, the two sides also co-chaired the 17th meeting of the Joint China-Bulgaria Economic Committee.