Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Ministers Nikolay Vassilev and Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin declared that Russia and Bulgaria will invigorate bilateral economic cooperation at the meeting of the Russian-Bulgarian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, which officially opened on February 22 in the Boyana residence. Co-chairs of the commission are Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Vassilev and Russia’s Alexei Kudrin. In his opening speech to the participants in the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Vassilev pointed out that he hopes that after the end of the meeting many problems in the bilateral relations would be solved. ”The last three years witnessed a fourfold decline in Bulgarian exports to Russia, and Bulgaria's deficit in the trade with Russia currently amounts to a huge 12 percent of the country's GDP. Russian investments here constitute a mere 4.7 percent of total foreign investments," Vassilev said. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that Russia is ready to participate in the privatization of the energy sector. ”The Russian authorities are willing to assist in providing more possibilities for Bulgarian business on the Russian market,” Kudrin said. Russia has allocated national budget funds for supply of nuclear fuel to Bulgaria and for upgrading of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, he added.