On 29 June 2023 at the International Congress Centre Burgas, the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK) is organizing a German-Bulgarian Economic Forum on the topic “Nearshoring and diversification back to EU”.
The aim of the event was to position Bulgaria as an attractive business destination as well as to strengthen and expand Bulgarian-German economic relations.
Among the guests of honour at the event were Irina Shchonova, Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry, H.E. Irene Maria Planck, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Bulgaria and Tim Kurth, President of AHK. The event was held under the patronage of the Mayor of Burgas, Dimitar Nikolov, who spoke on the topic.
“Nearshoring” as a term became particularly popular during the coronavirus pandemic and is the outsourcing of processes, industries and services to geographically and culturally close countries. It is Bulgaria’s strategic location that gives it the advantage to benefit from the processes of shortening supply chains. Large German companies successfully operating in the country shared their experience gained over the years.
The forum also touched upon aspects related to technology development and innovation. Good examples and future trends were presented, as well as opportunities for creating space for new cross-border business contacts with German, Bulgarian and European companies and promoting knowledge and information transfer.
The first panel, dedicated to Bulgaria as a suitable location for nearshoring markets in Europe, was attended by Hristo Etropolski, Acting Executive Director of Invest Bulgaria Agency (IBA), Eng. Vihren Stoynov, Procurator of Siemens Energy Ltd, Kiril Boradzhiev, Managing Director of HRS BULGARIA, Martin Knapp from the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Berlin, Yassen Georgiev, Executive Director of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the General Manager of GBITC Dr. Mitko Vassilev.
Mr. Hristo Etropolski informed that foreign direct investments in Bulgaria have increased by 50 percent in 2022 compared to 2021 and mentioned that everything is being done to continue this trend in 2023.
„During these years we have not had a budget deficit but a budget surplus. Moreover, the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product is at extremely low levels – close to 23%. We should add here the low levels of unemployment in the country, which usually do not exceed 4.5%. At the same time, we are aware of the difficulties that businesses have in finding highly qualified staff. I can assure you that a number of measures are being taken to address this issue,” Etropolski said.
In the second panel of the forum, managers of German companies in Bulgaria presented their success stories – Tim Kurth, CEO of Aurubis Bulgaria, Alexander Milanov, General Manager of BMW Group Bulgaria and Peter Weilguni, Managing Director of EMGR AD“.
In the last panel “Technology and Innovation” with presentations took part Marian Ivanov, Open Banking & DTL Engineering Manager Digital Technology Center Commerzbank Sofia Branch, Georgi Brashnarov, CEO of “Nemetschek Bulgaria”, Marina Shideroff, CEO of “Fram Creative Solutions” and Stanimir Nikolov, CEO of “Store IT“.