Bulgaria and Romania prove that the engine of European integration and regional cooperation works to ensure a positive change in the two countries and the whole region. This is what Head of State Rosen Plevneliev said, who opened a joint Bulgarian-Romanian business forum together with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

More than 100 representatives of the business circles from the two countries in the pharmacy, metallurgy, tourism, information technologies, agriculture and food production, and advertisement sectors gathered in the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Klaus Iohannis did a review of the bilateral trade relations in the past years. The bilateral trade has achieved an eight-fold growth in ten years, and the Bulgarian export to Romania has increased eight times, the Bulgarian President said.  Rosen Plevneliev added that the comprehensive friendly relations between Bulgaria and Romania are a condition ensuring an even more ambitious trade and investments cooperation also on the already outlined number of concrete projects of bilateral interest.

Romania is one of Bulgaria’s three most important trade and economic partners, President Klaus Iohannis said, for his part. More than one million Romanian tourists visit Bulgaria annually and the investments cooperation is becoming more active. The Bulgarian investments in Romania are worth more than 150 million euros, the Romanian president said.

Klaus Iohannis outlined the partnership between the two countries within the EU, the opportunities the two countries have within the EU Danube Strategy and in the Black Sea region, and also the successful implementation of joint projects under the Romania - Bulgaria Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2007-2013, in which a 95-percent funds absorption has been reached.

Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Klaus Iohannis voiced their support for improving the transport and energy connectivity by constructing new bridge facilities between the two countries, for the implementation of the Ruse-Giurgiu gas interconnector  by the end of the year, and also for improving the navigation and shipping along the Danube river, which will give an economic impetus to the regions located along the banks of the navigable route.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU together and will work together to strengthen the EU integration processes. “We should be convinced that the European project will continue to develop,” President Iohannis told the representatives of the business circles from the two countries.