site.btaBill Clinton Vows to Help Advertise Bulgaria to US Business Community

New York, September 22 (BTA) - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev talked with former US president Bill Clinton in New York on September 21, Radev's press secretariat reported. Emerging from the meeting, Radev told journalists that Clinton promised to help advertise Bulgaria to the business community and the general public in the United States.

Radev said: "Bulgaria can attract many more US investors, but we need to do our part of the job first. Our fight against corruption must be really uncompromising." He noted the gap between the very good political cooperation between Sofia and Washington and the insufficient presence of US companies in Bulgaria.

Radev invited Clinton to visit his country again and give a talk to university students. Clinton's first and only trip to Bulgaria so far was in 1999 in his capacity as US President.

Meeting with senior executives of US companies which have invested or plan to invest in the Bulgarian economy, Radev said the two countries' strategic partnership is a prerequisite for much more active bilateral economic and investment cooperation. The meeting was organized by the Business Council for International Understanding and was attended by representatives of major corporations such as IBM, Motorola Solutions, ViaSat, FedEx, Comcast, and AES, among others.

Radev urged the US business community to avail themselves of the favourable investment conditions which Bulgaria provides with its gateway location, its role in promoting stability in Southeastern Europe, its membership of the EU and NATO, skilled workforce and low taxes.

The Bulgarian President said: "Over the last couple of decades Bulgaria and the United States have proven they can be good partners and work successfully together in such areas as defence and security, and information technology." He said his country has maintained its status as an education hub, and noted that Bulgarian students invariably achieve excellent results in international Olympiads in mathematics, physics and information technology. "Our aim is to create conditions for these young people to stay in Bulgaria and develop their potential there. Our institutions will therefore support good business undertakings, particularly in the high-value-added industries," Radev said.

He remarked that the expansion of transport and energy infrastructure is one of the domains in which Bulgaria is catching up with other EU member states and this involves considerable financial investments. Major corporations in Europe, China and other parts of the world have shown interest in investing in this sector of the Bulgarian economy, thus creating a competitive environment which offers good business opportunities, he said.

The American business executives raised questions about the protection of intellectual property rights in Bulgaria, the development of the country's transport and energy infrastructure, the defence industry, and Bulgaria's chances of becoming a technology hub in Southeastern Europe.