site.btaForeign Minister Zaharieva Confers with Togolese President Essozimna Gnassingbe

Lome, June 1 (BTA) - Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva conferred with Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe within the framework of her visit to the African country, Zaharieva's Ministry said in a press release on Friday.

Zaharieva is in Togo in her capacity as co-chair of the 107th Session of the Joint Council of Ministers of the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), which is taking place in Lome on May 31 and June 1.

"In Lome today, we are writing a new chapter in the relations between the EU and Africa. I am grateful to Togo for playing a constructive and active role in this process, as well as for the excellent arrangements for the forum," Zaharieva said, referring to the start of negotiations on a new EU-ACP agreement, due this coming autumn, which in 2020 should supersede the expiring Cotonou Agreement. She emphasized that the EU greatly appreciates partnership with both the ACP and with the African Union and that Togo is active in both organizations. The Deputy PM stressed the importance of enlisting Europe private business in African development programmes in partnership with the European Investment Bank, which has already reconfirmed its commitment.

The chief Bulgarian diplomat assured President Gnassingbe that before the end of the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency, the EU will be ready with its negotiating positions on the future relations with the ACP, so that the post-Cotonou Agreement negotiations could start in later August or early September 2018.

"Bulgaria regards the countries of sub-Saharan Africa as important partners and has pursued friendly relations with most of them in the course of decades, which we are now trying to revive and develop further," Zaharieva said. She noted the priority sectors in which Bulgarian business can be involved: mining, manufacture of medicines for human and animal use, high technology, vocational training, agriculture, food processing and the energy sector. As a EU Member State, Bulgaria also provides African goods with excellent access to third markets in the Union.

"So far Togo was focused on several countries as business partners, mainly France and Germany. We must broaden this horizon," Gnassingbe said. He promised to explore with his country's Government opportunities for organizing a business forum with the participation of companies from Bulgaria and Central and Eastern Europe.

The President of Togo highly commended Bulgaria's long-standing commitment to the training of experts, construction of infrastructure projects and industrial development assistance in Africa. "The only way to ensure value added to the African economies is to pursue the manufacture of finished products and not just raw materials extraction and export," he argued. Togo is the world's 19th largest producer of phosphates, but a fertilizer plant has not been set up since the country's independence in 1960, the head of State pointed out. Zaharieva agreed, saying that the same approach should be adopted in food processing: staking on finished products rather than just on exporting inputs.

President Gnassingbe singled out the disconnection between education and the needs of business as yet another substantial problem.

The Foreign Minister suggested to him to weigh the options of resuming scholarships for the tuition of African students in Bulgaria, in which the country has ample experience, especially in agriculture and engineering.