Bulgaria’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and its counterpart from Pakistan’s city of Gujrat have signed a cooperation agreement.

The agreement was signed at a business forum held Tuesday in Sofia by the presidents of the two chambers, Tsvetan Simeonov from the BCCI, and Muhammad Imtiaz Ahmed from the GCCI.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Mrs. Kasar Ahsan Igbal, was also part of the 17-member Pakistan delegation.

Yuliyan Balchev from the InvestBulgaria Agency presented to the Pakistani businessmen the opportunities for investments in Bulgaria.

Jalal Hassan from the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade has invited Bulgarian businesses to invest in the developing energy sector and infrastructure of Pakistan. The Pakistani delegation has pointed out that the investments in their country’s economy could be used as a base for access to the Chinese market.

The BCCI Chair Tsvetan Simeonov said he hoped to see a boost of Bulgaria’s trade relations with Pakistan over the coming years. He emphasized the unfortunate fact that the Pakistani delegation had to be downsized because Bulgaria applied certain clauses of the Schengen agreement.