site.bta First Free Trade Zone to Be Built in Bulgaria within 16+1 Initiative

First Free Trade Zone to Be Built in Bulgaria within 16+1 Initiative

Kinming/Sofia, November 6 (BTA) - The first free trade zone within the 16+1 initiative will be created in Bulgaria, it transpired from an agro-business forum, opened by Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Vassil Groudev as part of the 14th international agricultural trade exhibition in Kinming, the Agriculture Ministry reported Sunday.

During the business forum, the Director of the Centre for Promotion of Cooperation in Agriculture between China and the countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Vassil Gelev, signed a trilateral agreement for building the first 16+1 free trade zone. The agreement is a continuation of a memorandum on encouraging cooperation that was signed between Gelev's Centre and the Bulgarian-Chinese Business Development Association (BCBDA).

The document provides for attracting investments worth no less than 50 million euro in the Trakia Economic Zone, which is a member of BCBDA and located in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. On the Chinese side, the investment is provided by ACN Worldwide Shanghai. The cooperation promotion centre will coordinate and encourage the project's successful implementation between the sides. New infrastructure will be built on an area of one hectare, including commercial storage area and administrative offices for commercial operations.