The commerce and industry chambers of Bulgaria and Japan have signed a new arbitration agreement that is supposed to facilitate further the bilateral economic ties.

The agreement between the Arbitration Court of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association, which is part of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was inked in Tokyo Monday, during the visit of a Bulgarian government and business delegation in Japan.

BCCI Chair Tsvetan Simeonov and JCAA Chair Kosuke Yamamoto signed the agreement after a bilateral meeting between the two chambers of commerce and industry attended on Bulgaria's part by Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov, Deputy Economy Minister Evgeni Angelov; Ognyan Donev, chair of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG) and CEO of the largest Bulgarian pharmaceutical producer Sopharma, and Tsolo Vutov, President of Geotechming OOD, a Bulgarian engineering and consultancy company.

In the talks with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bulgarian Economy Minister Traikov has vowed that the government plans to preserve the lowest tax rates in the EU and to continue to reduce the administrative burden and bureaucracy in order to draw more foreign investors.

Both parties have expressed their understanding that the new arbitration agreement will serve as a guarantee for the businesspeople from the two countries. The existing agreement was from 1961. The BCCI points out in its statement that even back in the days of the planned economy (when it was a state organization) it did exert efforts to attract Japanese investments.

The new arbitration agreement is said to correspond to Bulgaria's status as a market economy and an EU member. It allows each party to nominate international arbitration experts. The head of the JCAA Kosuke Yamamoto has accepted BCCI's invitation to visit Bulgaria in order to gain a better understanding of the work of the BCCI arbitration court.

The BCCI points out that the number of cases handled by the Bulgarian business arbitration court is 10 times higher than that in Japan because of wider use of arbitration in domestic disputes. The two parties have agreed to exchange updated arbitration information on a permanent basis.

The delegation of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is accompanying Bulgarian PM Borisov on a four-day working visit to Japan (January 21-26, 2011).