site.btaBTA Establishes Partnership with Bulgarian-Saudi Chamber of Commerce

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) concluded a partnership agreement with the Bulgarian-Saudi Chamber of Commerce (BSCC) on Tuesday. The agreement was signed by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and BSCC President Dimitar Abadzhiev at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia.

The instrument will allow the Bulgarian companies which will become members of the newly established BSCC to share information about their relations with Saudi Arabia, and their reports will reach all Bulgarians directly through BTA's news services. Abadzhiev said: "Our partnership with BTA is very important, because, regrettably, information about either country in the other is still rather scant and of low quality. Therefore, I am certain that this joint undertaking will be crucial."

Valchev presented Abadzhiev with a medal and a postage stamp marking the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the national news agency. He wished BSCC to achieve BTA's longevity.

Valchev said: "BTA is expanding the circle of its partners with another chamber of commerce. We are signing this agreement shortly after the National Day of Saudi Arabia, which was celebrated on September 23." He added that BTA has concluded similar agreements with the chambers of commerce of Germany, France, Romania and the United States in Bulgaria.

BTA is preparing formal accords with the chambers of commerce of the Hellenic Business Council in Bulgaria and the Kosovo-Bulgaria Chamber of Commerce. The news agency wants to establish partnerships with the chambers of commerce of the Balkan countries by the end of this year. Later, it plans to pay more attention to the Arab countries as they are important economic partners to Bulgaria, which serves as a stepping stone for Arab businesses to Europe, more specifically the EU, Valchev said.

Abadzhiev congratulated Valchev on establishing official cooperation with the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in February, which the BSCC chief called an unprecedented act. For his part, Valchev recalled that Abadzhiev helped BTA sign the memorandum with SPA. Since then, Saudi Arabia "has maintained a weekly presence with us, reporting through its own perspective, while BTA stories have been published in Saudi Arabia".