Just days before the outgoing cabinet steps out of office, at a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Sofia, three major Chinese companies announced serious investment intentions in Bulgaria. Global online retailer Alibaba Group plans to establish a logistics center, GS-Solar Company want to build a plant for production of solar panels, while GoldPoly Group wants to buy Bulgarian tobacco. Market niches that Chinese investors see in Bulgaria are of high interest to this country, too. The potential logistics center of Alibaba Group, for example, would have offered the international markets Bulgarian goods and food, while buying the tobacco of local producers has been a painful topic for many years. There is mutual interest in the field of strategic investments, too. Less than a month ago the Industrial Commercial Bank of China showed readiness to finance the "Belene" NPP project under the conditions of the Bulgarian side – no financial involvement of the state, no state guarantees and no long-term contracts for buying electricity. China also has interest in construction of new nuclear units in existing NPP "Kozloduy". Such interest was voiced in December by China State Power Investment Corporation.

Obviously, the change of government in Bulgaria does not stop investment intentions from China and this is understandable. Efforts for boosting mutual cooperation and trade exchange started years ago. China regards Bulgaria as an important bridge to the large European market and Bulgaria has been following a policy of strengthening trade and economic ties to the east since 2014. The 16 +1 initiative for cooperation of China with Central and Eastern Europe has recently become an important framework for the realization of mutual interests. Some say that Bulgaria has enthusiastically joined the initiative and all of its calls so far have received green light. The next step after detecting the areas of cooperation is realising the projects of mutual interest.