This week, the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises organized two forums, bringing together representatives of the Bulgarian as well as the business in Turkey and Belarus.

The events passed under great interest, with more than 500 participants registered on the Bulgarian - Turkish Business Forum.

"It is a great pleasure and privilege for me as the executive director of the Bulgarian SME Promotion Agency to the Minister of Economy to open this large Bulgarian-Turkish business forum. Turkey is one of Bulgaria's leading trade and economic partners. However, I am confident that the opportunities for expanding and diversifying bilateral business relations are immense. We from BSMEPA will willingly support Bulgarian enterprises in seeking new ways and areas of interaction by focusing our efforts on further diversification of the bilateral goods and services exchanged as well as on the more dynamic creation of joint ventures for third party markets. This overcrowded hall with more than 500 participants is a testimony to the extraordinary load of business circles from Bulgaria and Turkey and to the great untapped potential in the development of trade and economic ties between businesses in our two countries. "- said the executive director of BSMEPA, Dr. Boyko Takov in his opening speech.

This is the second year of the business forum that BSMEPA is organizing in partnership with the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK) and the goal is for business representatives of both countries to exchange contacts and experience in different sectors of the economy.

More than 150 companies and organizations from Turkey, and almost 300 business representatives from Bulgaria were registered for the event. The participants had the opportunity to meet their potential partners in the field of construction, land cultivation, agriculture, food, health, logistics, machine building, textiles, tourism, information and communication technologies, etc.

The management of BSMEPA expressed its confidence that the Bulgarian business partners from Turkey appreciated the excellent conditions for investment and development of various business models provided by the industrial zones to the Bulgarian National Company "Industrial Zones" and Thrace Economic Zone which were also presented during the Forum, which moved on to bilateral B2B meetings.

Some of the participants in the big event include the President of DEIK Turkey, Mr. Nail Olpak, the President of the Bulgarian-Turkish business council at DEIK, the President of the Bulgarian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr. Edis Emre, the Executive Director of InvestBulgaria Agency Mr. Stamen Yanev, representative of National Company Industrial Zones and others.

The second event - Bulgarian - Belarusian Business Forum started with the signing of a Protocol between the Bulgarian-Belarusian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific and Technical Cooperation.

The protocol was signed by Deputy Minister of Economy of Bulgaria, Alexander Manolev and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Oleg Kravchenko. The document follows the Bulgarian-Belarusian relations in the sphere of economy, the potential and the basis for their development in the future.

The two Deputy Ministers made welcome greetings to the guests and the business representatives, and the event was officially opened by Deputy Minister Manolev. Welcome introduction to the present delegates was also made by the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Dr. Boyko Takov.

"For another year, the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises along with the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Bulgaria, together with the National Center for Marketing and Price Conjunction, organized a Bulgarian-Belarusian Business Forum. During the last three meetings of the Bulgarian-Belarusian Intergovernmental Commission for Trade, Economic and Scientific Cooperation in Bulgaria and Belarus in partnership with the National Center for Marketing and Conjunction, business events were successfully held in order to promote bilateral relations . That is why our participation in this business forum is of utmost importance because we believe that these business events are gradually becoming an effective platform for realizing real and mutually beneficial business contacts between the participants, which in turn contributes to the deepening of the bilateral relations between Bulgarian and Belarusian companies, "said Dr. Takov.

Even before the bilateral meetings were concluded, real results were achieved by signing agreements between the two countries' business representatives.

The event was attended by representatives of the business from the Republic of Belarus who had the opportunity to exchange ideas for co-operation with representatives of the Bulgarian business. Institutional representatives of Belarus presented their business and economic potential during the forum, after which the forum turned into bilateral business meetings.

Representative of IBA Teodora Stavreva, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, the National Marketing Center of Belarus and representatives of the Belarusian Business Delegation took part in the official segment of the forum.