site.btaBulgarian Parliament Chair Meets with Japanese Counterpart

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Bulgarian Parliament Chair
Meets with Japanese
Counterpart


Tokyo/Sofia, November 20 (BTA) - On the second day of an official two-day visit to Japan, Bulgarian Parliament leader Tsveta Karayancheva met here Tuesday with Chuichi Date, President of the House of Councillor (the upper house of the National Diet) and with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said the parliamentary press office. The two sides discussed the parliamentary exchange and the work of the friendship groups in the two legislatures in the interest of advancing bilateral cooperation and stepping up exchange in the areas of research, technologies, sport, education and culture.

Karayancheva is visiting at Date's invitation.

Meeting with her host, she stressed the warm friendly relations between the two countries based on historic roots, shared values and mutual respect.

She underscored the wish and dedicated efforts of her country to attract more Japanese tourists.

Karayancheva and Abe vowed that the two countries will double their efforts to increase the commercial growth, tourist exchange and Japanese strategic investment in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian parliament leader said that Japan is an important investor and Bulgaria offers a fine investment climate. She added that the large EU market is also a reason for stronger presence of the Japanese business in the Bulgarian economy.

The two sides expressed satisfaction with the upward trend in strategic partnership between the EU and Japan.

Karayancheva said that the initiative Prime Minister Abe has declared for cooperation with the Western Balkans matches the Bulgarian priorities in the Balkans and offer the two countries a field for join work on various projects in the Balkans.

Prime Minister Abe reconfirmed Japan's commitment to hold a joint workshop on natural disasters prevention and risk management with the countries in the Western Balkans, to take place in Bulgaria in February 2019.

Karayancheva stressed the importance of encouraging cooperation among small and mid-sized companies of the two countries.

She thanked for the Japanese state grants provided on an annual basis for Bulgarian students.

Some 500 Bulgarians have been recipients of these grants.


Karayancheva also said she is happy with Bulgarian cultural events in Japan attract such attention, and recalled that Days of Japanese Culture take place in Bulgaria annually since 1991 to showcase various aspects of traditional and contemporary Japanese art.

The Bulgarian delegation to Tokyo includes Bulgaria-Japan Friendship Group Deputy Chair Ihsan Halil and the group's members Dimiter Danchev, Nikolai Alexandrov and Plamen Hristov, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev. LY/LN/
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