Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev has confirmed at a meeting with the Italian business association Confindustria in Rome that the Bulgarian tax regime – featuring the lowest taxes in the EU – is not to be changed.

Plevneliev paid an official visit to Italy on March 30 accepting the invitation of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. After an official meeting with Napolitano, the Bulgarian President and the Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov met the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini.

In the afternoon the Bulgarian President visited the headquarters of the Association of the Italian Entrepreneurship, Confindustria, the association of Italian businesses in Bulgaria, Confindustria Bulgaria, reported.

Founded in 1910, Confindustria is the main organisation in Italy representing about 150 000 Italian manufacturing and services companies.

Plevneliev was welcomed by a delegation formed by the top management of Confindustria and a group of representatives of the most important Italian enterprises working in Bulgaria.

The enterpreneurs of the delegation had the opportunity to discuss with Plevneliev the economic relations between the two countries and to strenghten the bilateral economic links, sharing with the President their experiences in Bulgaria.

Plevnelies explained several oppurtunities of the Bulgarian economic system underlining the government efforts in attracting new investments in Bulgaria.

"Business is our priority" said Plevneliv explaining that the tax regime won't change.

Moreover, the President announced that the InvestBulgaria Agency will be reinforced to become the main institution of reference for the foreing investors.

The entrepreneurs delegation was led by the President of Confindustria Bulgaria Pietro Luigi Ghia.

"The presence of Italian business is now firmly rooted in Bulgaria and the Italian companies working in the country have a combined turnover of EUR 2 B, equal to 5% of the Bulgaria's GDP" said Ghia.

The meeting was organized with the support of the Ambassador of the Italian Republic in Bulgaria, Stefano Benazzo, who mentioned the strong and every day improving collaboration between Bulgaria and Italy in several fields.

All the firms that attended the meeting are members of Confindustria Bulgaria, the association of Italian enterprises in Bulgaria that has 250 associates active in textile, electronics, agriculture, finance, renewable energies, infrastructure, services, and footwear production.