KARACHI: Ambassador of Bulgaria Ms. Irena Gancheva has said that the third session of Joint Economic Commission between Bulgaria and Pakistan was being planned to be staged either later this year or may be at the beginning of next year in the city of Sofia which would surely help in developing and further strengthening the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Exchanging views at a meeting during her visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), the Bulgarian Envoy added, “The third session of Joint Economic Commission was supposed to take place in Sofia in 2020-21 but it could not materialize due to COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are working on holding this important session later this year or next year and I will be happy to see representatives of Karachi Chamber are also included in the business delegation, accompanying the government officials.”
President KCCI Muhammad Idrees, Vice President KCCI Qazi Zahid Hussain, Chairman Diplomatic Missions & Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Zia ul Arfeen, Former Presidents KCCI Majyd Aziz and Iftikhar Vohra along with KCCI Managing Committee Members attended the meeting.
Ms. Irena Gancheva, who was on her first ever visit to Karachi, stressed the need to raise awareness amongst the representatives of business communities of both countries about the possibilities which can only be made possible business delegation were regularly being exchanged and direct contacts were being encouraged. “Of course, during the last three years, COVID created a lot of challenges and unfortunately physical exchange of delegations was not possible but now is time to focus on exchange of trade delegations so that trade volume could be improved”, she said, adding that exchange of government and business delegations adds a lot of good momentum and create opportunities for the two countries to sit together and discuss specific areas of cooperation.
She said that Bulgaria and Pakistan share traditionally good relations with a strong history of 57 years of diplomatic relations and no bilateral issues. Touching upon some important areas of trade cooperation, she mentioned that the agriculture, dairy products and also the IT sector were very perspective areas of cooperation. “There is a huge potential to enhance trade cooperation through economic diplomacy.”
She informed that Bulgarian Agricultural Academy and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate in research.
Bulgarian Envoy also extended full support and cooperation to Karachi Chamber in improving ties with respective institutions in Bulgaria including Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Small & Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency and others government and private institutions.
