Head of State Rosen Plevneliev and President of Korea Park Geun-hye signed a joint declaration on a comprehensive and oriented to the future partnership in Seoul within the framework of the Bulgarian President’s official visit to the Asian country. The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea.

 

“In 25 years we managed to establish relationships of a successful partnership and friendship, which found an expression in the Joint declaration on a comprehensive and oriented to the future partnership signed today. Korea is Bulgaria’s priority partner in Asia. We would like to encourage bilateral trade and investments. We have a much greater potential, the Bulgarian products are very well accepted on the Asian market and our country enjoys an excellent reputation,” President Rosen Plevneliev said at a joint news conference with President Park Geun-hye. 

 

The Bulgarian President highlighted our country’s strategic advantages, since it is located on the road of the goods between Asia and Europe. “We have the lowest costs of the business and the lowest taxes in the EU. We are quickly modernizing our infrastructure, we have highly qualified specialists and developed industrial zones, we guarantee access to the 500-million European market – all this is a condition for strengthening the economic cooperation,” the Head of State said. Rosen Plevneliev added that Bulgaria is a regional leader in Southeast Europe in the ICT sector and invited Korean companies to take part in the first innovative eco-system in the region – Sofia Tech Park.  

 

“A lot of world companies are already functioning in Bulgaria and we will be happy if more Korean companies enter our country. We will strengthen the business contacts in sectors such as the ICT, infrastructure, energy, transport and logistics, car industry, agriculture and food, outsourcing and tourism. We will also hold a joint Bulgarian-Korean business forum. We welcome the greater interest of Korean companies in energy and infrastructure projects and in agriculture,” President Rosen Plevneliev further said. 

 

 The two presidents noted the importance of the educational and cultural exchange and highlighted the successful development of Korean studies in Bulgaria and Bulgarian studies in South Korea. During the plenary talks the great potential in tourism was also emphasized and our country is expected to direct efforts to the Korean tourist market.

 

 President Rosen Plevneliev said that as an EU member state, Bulgaria will continue actively to contribute to the development of the strategic partnership between the EU and the Republic of Korea. The Head of State voiced his high appraisal and support for the initiatives of President Park, directed at the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula. 

 

On the basis of the developed trade relations, the two countries will pool efforts to find more efficient ways to boost investments. To this effect, the first meeting of the Bulgarian-Korean mixed intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation will be held in October, which is to discuss concrete projects on investments and establishing direct contacts between the business circles in the two countries, President Park said.  

 

Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea will also work so as to expand their cooperation in a lot of other sectors such as energy, defense and defense industry, science, technologies, agriculture, environment, education and culture. Bulgaria has gained excellent experience in the development of fundamental research and Korea is among the leaders in applied sciences, Park Geun-hye said. 

 

The two countries also share a common understanding about the development of the global processes, the Korean president emphasized, who voiced her gratitude for Bulgaria’s consistent support for the issue of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and for preserving peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

 

Earlier in the day Presidents Rosen Plevneliev and Park Geun-hye attended a ceremony at which an Agreement on cooperation in the education and culture sector covering the period 2015-2018 between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea was signed, also a Memorandum on understanding between the respective ministries for cooperation in the science and technologies sector, a memorandum on understanding between the defense ministries of the two countries on cooperation in the defense sectors and  a memorandum on understanding between Bulgaria’s Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and tourism of the Republic of Korea on cooperation in the sphere of sports.  

On the same day President Rosen Plevneliev will visit the Innovations Center of the Samsung company and the Creative Economy and Innovations Center in Pangyo, which is a center of the IT industry of South Korea.