New strategies for the development of the Bulgarian

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New strategies for the development of the
Bulgarian Japanese economic relationsGeorgi
StoevG.Stoev_at_bcci.bg SOFIA 10.01.2003
Bulgarian-Japanese forum 2003
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Major barriers to the development of both
countries trade activities
I.Regarding export from Japan 1.Bulgaria is far
away country,2.Japanese have little information
and knowledge about Bulgarian business
opportunities3.Bulgarias import duties on
Japanese goods are 10 times bigger than import
duties on EU-origin products4.Negligible
investments by Japanese businesses which has no
inducement effect to expand trade5.Lack of
one-stop shop for the investors.
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Major barriers to the development of both
countries trade activities
II.Import to Japan 1.Longer period and higher
costs of transportation 2.Lack of competitive and
qualitative export commodities 3.Lack of
motivation for the Japanese investors, due to
insufficient information
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The new strategies 1
-Provision of rapidly developing, integrated
industrial parks with logistics and utilities, to
meet investors immediate needs -Supporting
industry, based on clusters of SMEs that supply
parts and components the role of BCCI and
BIA -A package of investment incentives -Establish
ing a nonprofit Bulgarian-Japanese economic
forum, acting as one-stop shop
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The new strategies 2
-The forum should work out investment incentives
package, equally applicable to all Bulgaria-based
companies. -Elaborated under national priorities
the incentives should help FDI and promote local
investment activities. -The forum should unite
the efforts of all institutions dealing with
Japan such as BCCI, BIA, JBEC, BJTIC, Ministry of
Economy and the Government Agencies and provide
reliable services.
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The new strategies 3
Bulgaria offers foreign potential investors
-Political and Macro-economic Stability -Strategi
c and Convenient Location -Low Cost, Well
Educated and Skilled Workforce -15 Corporate
Tax, the Lowest in the CEE Countries -Bulgarias
low prices of land and utilities are also
attractive for the development of the
agricultural cooperation But all these are only
prerequisites.
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The new strategies 4
The forum should take the following
actions -Promote trade, investment and
tourism -Cooperate with JETRO/ROTOBO research
and investigation missions -Organize investment
seminars in Bulgaria and Japan together with
JICA, ROTOBO, JETRO or JOI -Establishing
contacts with KEIDANREN and create opportunities
for establishment of JETRO office in Sofia
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The new strategies 5
-The Forum should help the establishment of joint
ventures, able to receive credit lines or soft
loans from Japan -The Forum can build up a
credit rating agency based on the database of
BCCI, BIU, BPQC, TBI and using Japanese
methodology or the methodology of SP or IBCA
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The new strategies 6
-The capital market is still under developed but
the yield on government bonds is growing and
pension funds are looking for alternative
investments -Our estimate is that only in
Bulgaria there would be about USD 1 billion of
funds available for investments in fixed income
securities by the end of 2005 -Therefore we
believe that the corporate bond market will take
off in the short to medium term.
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AOTS and JICA Training Courses help to overcome
the gaps
-AOTS tentatively planned to organize 15 regular
Management Training Courses for Fiscal
2003 -Proposal of Management Training Courses for
our country and applications could be send by
31.JAN.2003
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Thank you for the attention and have a nice day !
G.Stoev_at_bcci.bg