20 Feb 2025
On his first visit outside the capital, His Excellency was acquainted with the opportunities of Stara Zagora and the industrial zones being built
"We invite you to trade and invest in India, which has the ambition to become a developed country in 2047, when it will celebrate 100 years of its independence. There are huge opportunities for interaction between Bulgaria and India, which is the fifth largest economy in the world - from agriculture to defense and security." This was stated in Stara Zagora today by Mr. Arun Kumar Sahu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to Bulgaria. This was the first visit outside Sofia of His Excellency to participate in the meeting of employers from the Stara Zagora region organized by the Embassy of the Republic of India, jointly with the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber.
Rositsa Raykova, the Head of the "Investment, Energy Efficiency and Green Transition" Department, expressed gratitude for his visit on behalf of the Municipality of Stara Zagora. “Stara Zagora has great potential not only as a municipality, but also as a region. We are actively working on the construction and development of industrial zones, and also on encouraging investors to increasingly view Stara Zagora not only as an industrial city, but also as a technological and innovation center,” Rositsa Raykova also emphasized. She recalled the strategy developed a year ago with the assistance of consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which aims to encourage the development of the Stara Zagora region in the direction of digitalization, innovation and entrepreneurship. “I think that India is a very suitable country for an example, which can give us many ideas and guidelines on how we can develop. We have a built and already operating European digital innovation hub "Zagore", which also already provides services for businesses in the region and beyond", the head of the investment department in the Municipality of Stara Zagora also noted.
There are already very good and long-standing partnership business relations between Bulgaria and India in the region and they have been implemented in the largest private employer in Bulgaria - this is the Arsenal plant, recalled the regional governor Metodi Markov today. He described the meeting as an excellent basis for the development of any future business interests that will lead to the prosperity of our region, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be a guarantor for this, believes Metodi Markov.
We are very actively working to import Indian workers to solve the main problem of Bulgarian business - personnel, informed the chairman of the Management Board of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Stara Zagora Oleg Stoilov. "Stara Zagora started importing Indian workers 5-6 years ago, so we have a long-standing tradition in this regard and, I hope, this will develop", predicted the head of the chamber.
Mr. Arun Kumar Sahu also pointed out that the workforce in India is young, with an average age of up to 29 years and every month 1 million new people are entering it. We can interact in the fields of pharmacy, textiles, automotive components, mechanical engineering, with agricultural products, including tobacco and wine, the diplomat gave specific examples. "When you accept an Indian in your part of the world, you are not accepting a person who will replace you, but a person with whom you will cooperate," assured His Excellency.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber, Dr. Petar Velev, called for the regime for granting work visas to be eased.
Indian students are studying medicine and veterinary medicine at the Trakia University in Stara Zagora and they are doing excellently with the acquisition of knowledge, said the vice-rector for academic and information activities, Prof. Nelly Grozeva.
