The ministry of economy has declared its intention to unveil Bulgaria’s commercial representations in Cuba, Mexico and countries from North Africa. The sending of commercial attaches to Singapore and Indonesia has also been considered. The new part of that intention is the expansion of the destinations’ list by Cuba and Mexico. In January the ministry explained the redirecting of commercial representatives to eastern countries with the reasoning that our business should be supported in overcoming its losses from the Russian embargo. The Oresharski government had the same ideas, but with the reasoning that the relations with the EU were too smooth yet at the macro level and no representations had been necessary after the 2007 accession. Bulgaria had commercial and economic services in 44 states and 90 percent of this country’s export went to those. However, the current government intends also to improve the preparation and selection of these services’ HR. Changes are also envisaged in the services of the Bulgarian Export Insurance Agency, in order for the latter to become more attractive and profitable to the Bulgarian exporter. The ideas of the cabinet meet the full approval of the business, as we still remember the period when this country had huge exports to Middle East states, in terms of size and diversity, for instance. However, there are mainly relatively small producers within the Bulgarian economy today and that redirecting also suggests the cooperation of many small producers under one trademark. That is why in these times of decentralized economy the redirection is not only within the authority of the executive power, but also depends on its cooperation with business. That is why the ministry considers the assignment of attaches in the form of public-private partnership, in case there are states where the business wants commercial attaches, but the institution doesn’t envisage such assignments. The ideas for redirection of Bulgarian commerce towards markets outside the EU are a clear necessity, as so many different governments share those, but for now we only listen to words…

English version: Zhivko Stanchev