While visiting Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) on Tuesday Ambassador of Bulgaria Ms. Irena Gancheva informed the third session of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC) between Bulgaria and Pakistan is being planned.
She said that the session would be convened later this year or at the beginning of next year in the city of Sofia which would surely help in developing and further strengthening the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Exchanging views at a meeting during her visit, the Bulgarian Envoy added, “The third session of Joint Economic Commission was supposed to take place in Sofia in 2020-21 but it could not materialize due to COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are working on holding this important session later this year or next year and I will be happy to see representatives of Karachi Chamber are also included in the business delegation, accompanying the government officials.”
President KCCI Muhammad Idrees, Vice President KCCI Qazi Zahid Hussain, Chairman Diplomatic Missions & Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Zia ul Arfeen, Former Presidents KCCI Majyd Aziz and Iftikhar Vohra along with KCCI Managing Committee Members were also present during the visit.
Ms. Irena Gancheva, who was on her first-ever visit to Karachi, stressed the need to raise awareness amongst the representatives of business communities of both countries about the possibilities which can only be made possible business delegation were regularly being exchanged and direct contacts were being encouraged. “Of course, during the last three years, COVID created a lot of challenges and unfortunately physical exchange of delegations was not possible but now its time to focus on the exchange of trade delegations so that trade volume could be improved”, she said, adding that exchange of government and business delegations adds a lot of good momentum and create opportunities for the two countries to sit together and discuss specific areas of cooperation.
Bulgarian Envoy also extended full support and cooperation to the KCCI in improving ties with respective institutions in Bulgaria including the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Small & Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency and others government and private institutions.
On the occasion, President KCCI Muhammad Idrees mentioned that in 2020, Bulgaria imported $165.17 million worth of copper-related articles in the form of cathodes and billets from countries such as Austria, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey. During the same year, Pakistan exported $321.39 million of this commodity mainly to China and Belgium but unfortunately, Pakistan and Bulgaria were not trading this particular commodity. President KCCI also presented crest to Ambassador of Bulgaria Ms. Irena Gancheva.