The Chambers of Commerce of Bulgaria and Libya signed a Cooperation Agreement

The President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov held a meeting with his counterpart – the Chairman of the Board of the General Libyan Union of Chambers Mr. Mohamed Raied. The meeting was initiated by the Head of the Libyan diplomatic mission in Sofia H.E. Mr. Moftah Dareni.

The main objective of the meeting was to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries. Simeonov noted that it was a natural continuation of the first meeting with Raied in 2018. Different areas of interaction were discussed, including: construction, energy, tourism, agriculture, mechanical engineering. The President of BCCI said that balancing the bilateral trade is a very important element for expanding the economic relations.

Mohamed Raied, Chairman of the Board of the General Libyan Union of Chambers, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Economic Committee of the Libyan Parliament said that his country is ready to strengthen the economic cooperation with Bulgaria. Libya has 19 administrative provinces with certain independence and own budgets. There are 16 regional chambers of commerce in the country with a total of over 300,000 members. Libya is one of the major oil exporters. The country needs experts in various fields for its development.

Raied proposed an update of the 2017 cooperation agreement with BCCI in order to include new forms of cooperation: supporting direct contacts between companies from both countries, searching for potential business partners, agents and distributors, participating in international business events in both countries, as well as organizing joint ones, providing access to the services offered by the two organizations for their members, etc.

The document was signed in the presence of H.E. Mr. Moftah Dareni and Libyan businessmen operating in Bulgaria.

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Bulgaria’s trade with Libya in the period January-June 2021 amounted to USD 102.4 million, of which USD 100.6 million exports and USD 1.8 million imports. Bulgaria’s exports to Libya mainly consisted of: wheat and meslin, barley; bakery, pastry and biscuit products, whether or not containing cocoa; other similar products made of flour or starch. For comparison, trade with Libya in the period January-June 2020 amounted to USD 57.35 million, of which USD 57.15 million exports, and USD 0.2 million imports.