Bulgaria expects to attract Russian investments worth about USD 1 BLN in the next few years, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolay Vassilev said in an exclusive interview for the Russian news agency Itar-Tass. According to him Sofia counts on the Russian interest in projects in the energy sector, considering the future privatization of the whole sector. The amounts of natural gas transported from Russia to Turkey via Bulgaria is likely to be increased, Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Vassilev said, following his meeting with officials from Russia’s gas giant Gazprom in Moscow. According to him Bulgaria will also complete the construction of a gas pipeline to Yugoslavia. It was also agreed that new gas pipelines to Turkey and Greece are to be built parallel to the existing ones. Deputy Prime Minister Vassilev presented the opportunities and perspectives for investments in Bulgaria at a business forum in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. Opportunities for increase of the Bulgarian export to Russia as well as improvement of the business relations were discussed. “The politically biased economic relations have so far hampered the contacts between Bulgaria and Russia,“ Evgenii Primakov,former foreign minister and curent President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said during the presentation.

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