Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov opened the International Economic Forum of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BBR) "Roads for Partnerships". This year, it coincides with the 20th anniversary of the bank's founding. The conduct of the conference is part of BBR's active position in international financial cooperation. The Bulgarian Development Bank is the best positioned bank in the country to attract funds from international partners. During the opening, Minister Karanikolov emphasized that in 2018 BBR achieved the best financial results for the past two decades of its founding.

In his words, for the first time, the book value and the assets of the joint-stock company exceeded BGN 3 billion, increasing by 22% compared to the end of 2017. "A significant increase in profit was reported for 2018. New loans for businesses amounted to almost 400 million leva, which is more than three times more than in 2017, "the minister said. Within the forum, the Minister of Economy recalled that a Fund for Capital Investments was established at the end of last year.

He emphasized that this year's focus of the discussions is the prospects for the implementation of the new European program InvestEU, which is the extension of the Juncker Plan. Minister Karanikolov pointed out that it will encourage the investment activity and the modernization of the European economy in the next programming period.