Bulgaria opens its doors to Japanese business, seeks closer industrial partnership

“Bulgaria is open to Japanese business. We want accelerated industrial cooperation with Japan.” This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Investment and Industry Alexander Pulev during a meeting with representatives of a Japanese business delegation on an official visit to Bulgaria. The delegation is led by Mr. Fukushiro Nukaga, a Japanese statesman, former Minister of Finance and former Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan.

The meeting focused on opportunities to deepen bilateral economic and industrial cooperation, as well as specific opportunities for partnerships between Bulgarian and Japanese companies in the food-processing industry and aviation, including drone manufacturing.

The Deputy Prime Minister highlighted Bulgaria’s number of competitive advantages for attracting Japanese investment – its strategic geographical location, well-educated and qualified workforce, and access to the European market. “Bulgaria is establishing itself as a gateway for Japanese business to Europe,” he stressed.

Pulev emphasized the three main areas of the government programme that create opportunities for more active economic partnership with Japan – attracting investment and industrialization; digitalization and the implementation of artificial intelligence and high technologies; and infrastructure modernization.

“We are making investment a national priority – promoting high-tech manufacturing and diversifying future investment flows. We want to expand our partnerships beyond Bulgaria’s traditional markets,” he stressed. Among the priority areas for cooperation, he pointed to energy, high technologies, artificial intelligence, transport connectivity and industrialization.

“We are open to learning from Japan’s experience as one of the international technology leaders. We want Japanese companies to contribute their expertise and know-how to the processes of economic transformation in Bulgaria,” Pulev said.

According to him, digitalization and the implementation of artificial intelligence will be key to modernizing both the public administration and the economy. “Japan’s experience and technological solutions can be an extremely valuable partner in this process,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

As a third strategic area, Pulev highlighted infrastructure modernization. “We are establishing an entirely new legislative framework for public-private partnerships. Through it, we will mobilize private capital to modernize infrastructure in the country – energy, transport connectivity and industrial zones. We want to be more ambitious and invite Japanese companies to participate in all processes related to this economic transformation,” he said.

During the talks, the Japanese representatives expressed specific interest in partnerships with Bulgarian companies in the food-processing industry, aviation, drone manufacturing and logistics. It became clear that Bulgarian machinery is already at the core of technological solutions used by a Japanese company that offers know-how and solutions for farms on the Indian market. This is a concrete example of the potential of Bulgarian manufacturing and the opportunities to build new value chains between Bulgaria and Japan.

It was highlighted that representatives of Japanese companies in the freight forwarding and logistics sectors are launching a partnership with Bulgarian companies for joint research and development and the development of drones that meet Japanese technical requirements and specifications.

Among the opportunities discussed is for the manufactured drones to gain access to the Japanese aviation sector through the relevant permits. “We want to turn the good relations between Bulgaria and Japan into concrete economic projects, investments, manufacturing and joint technologies. Our goal is for the friendship between the two nations to have an increasingly strong economic and industrial dimension,” Pulev said.

The Japanese delegation also includes Kaloyan Mahlyanov – Kotooshu, who has made a significant contribution to the development of bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Japan. The meeting was also attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to Japan Marieta Arabadjieva and the Ambassador of Japan to Bulgaria, H.E. Chikahisa Sumi.