site.btaJapan's Foreign Minister Kono Meets with Bulgarian Counterpart Zaharieva, PM Borissov

105 POLITICS - BULGARIAN PM - JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER Amplified

Japan's Foreign Minister
Kono Meets with Bulgarian Counterpart
Zaharieva, PM Borissov


August 13 (BTA) - Emerging from talks with Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono here on Tuesday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said that Bulgaria would like to see more Japanese investments and tourists in this country. Kono is paying a two-day visit to Bulgaria at Zaharieva's invitation.

Zaharieva said there are wonderful business opportunities for Japanese high-tech companies in Bulgaria. "There already are many big companies, and we strongly hope that we will soon see a car manufacturer, and not just an automotive parts manufacturer, from Japan in Bulgaria," she noted.

In her words, there is an extremely warm relation, friendship and understanding between the Bulgarian and Japanese people.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov talked with Japanese Foreign Minister Kono, the Government Information Service said.

During the meeting, Borissov said that Japan is a priority partner and traditional friend of Bulgaria. He described as positive the activization of bilateral high-level political dialogue and sent his sincere greetings to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Borissov expressed confidence that the high-level meetings will give an additional impetus to the bilateral economic ties, which in turn is a prerequisite for an increase of the volume and scope of Japanese investments and of the number of Japanese tourists in Bulgaria.

The Prime Minister underscored that Bulgaria has proven itself a stable and predictable partner with big potential for cooperation.

Borissov emphasized Bulgaria's interest in increasing its export to Japan as well as in strengthening the business contacts in areas such as ICT and automatization, machine building, automotive parts manufacturing, and construction. He welcomed the Japanese Prime Minister's initiative for cooperation with the Western Balkans.

IG/DS

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