Chinese Companies Are among Potential Bidders for Belene Nuclear Plant Project

Chinese companies are among the
potential bidders for building the Belene Nuclear Power Plant in
Bulgaria, says Vesselin Iliev, Director for International
Economic Cooperation at the Bulgarian Industrial Association
(BIA).

China's interest in the project was expressed by the country's
Premier Wen Jiabao during his meeting with Bulgarian Prime
Minister Boyko Borissov in New York in September 2010. The
project for a second Bulgarian nuclear power plant matches the
mindset of the Chinese in terms of scheme and scale, says Iliev,
who has worked with the Chinese market for years.

His comments came after officials from the Far Eastern country
visited BIA a few days ago.

COOPERATION WITH CHINA: 10% RISE IN EXPORTS

China is Bulgaria's largest trade partner in Asia. Two-way
commodity exchange in 2009 amounted to 793 million US dollars,
including 628.8 million dollars in Chinese imports to Bulgaria
and 164.6 million dollars in Bulgarian exports to China.

Bulgarian exports to that country are dominated by metals,
metallurgical equipment, and chemicals. Chinese imports to
Bulgaria are quite varied, including, above all, electrical
appliances, radio equipment, car parts, processed vegetables,
footwear, rice, and toys.

In the first three months of 2010, bilateral trade increased by
10.5 per cent to 220.1 million dollars, compared with the first
three months of 2009. Bulgarian exports to China over that
period grew by an impressive 432 per cent to 80.6 million
dollars. Refined copper and copper alloys accounted for 56.4 per
cent of that amount.

Thanks to the natural growth of the Chinese market, Bulgaria can
easily boost its exports by at least 10 per cent if it
intensifies its cooperation with China, Iliev says. By contrast,
in Germany, whose economy grows by 2 per cent annually, a
Bulgarian breakthrough can only be achieved by ousting other
countries.

One reason for the steady increase in Bulgarian exports to China
after 2009 is that an enterprise in Pirdop has been contracted
to supply copper to China.

GOVERNMENT COOPERATION PROGRAMMES

Bulgaria is included on a list of countries regarding which
China employs mechanisms to boost its own investments and to
promote imports to China. Current Chinese government programmes
for the business communities in the two countries include
initiatives to promote the import of Bulgarian innovative
products to China.

Under a China-EU agreement, a programme has been drawn up to
train European managers in doing business in China.

It turns out that some well-known business rules do not always
apply to China, Iliev says. Bulgarian entrepreneurs are often
inclined to interpret a "maybe" answer as "more of a yes than a
no". People knowledgeable of Chinese business communication
traditions, however, say that this is most likely a tactful
refusal.

MORE BULGARIANS WANT TO LEARN CHINESE

Bulgarians willing to study Chinese have increased by 50 per
cent over the last year, according to Aksinia Koleva of the
Confucius Institute in Sofia. The Chinese government organizes
annual examinations for Chinese language learners towards
internationally recognized certificates.

The Confucius Institute in Sofia is one of the first in Eastern
Europe. More and more young Bulgarians realize that English is
not enough to open the door to business in China, Koleva says.

CHINESE INVESTORS: A PROFILE

There are two types of Chinese investors in Bulgaria: large
entrepreneurs and small traders, Iliev says. For small
restaurant and shop owners, doing business in Bulgaria is a
matter of survival and of finding living space. They do not
usually plan to return to China, according to the expert.

As of the end of 2009, Chinese investments in the Bulgarian
economy totalled 10 million euro. The largest of them have been
made in renewable energy projects (at Ihtiman), car making (at
Lovech), and the chemical industry (at Razgrad).

(BTA)

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