Tuesday, April 23 2013

Mr. Ambassador,
are you pleased with the development of the trade and economic relations between
our countries? Though the crisis peak seems to be behind, the National
Statistical Service of Armenia says that in 2012 the imports from Bulgaria to
Armenia dropped by 15.4% to $86.5 mln,
and the exports from Armenia dropped by 15.1% to $129.3 mln. Why do you think
the commodity turnover between the two countries has declined?

 

I think the trade
and economic relations between Armenia and Bulgaria are developing fairly well
given that both countries are not large and the economic development level is
much lower than in other states. So, there are not so many possibilities for a
big commodity turnover. According to the Bulgarian statistics, over the past
few years the commodity turnover between the two countries has remained at the
same level. The Bulgarian and Armenian statistical data differ. According to
our data, the commodity turnover is much lower than the turnover mentioned by
the National Statistical Service of Armenia. This is apparently due to the fact
that the Armenian statistical service takes into account the Bulgarian goods
entering the Armenian market via the third countries. Our statistical service takes into consideration the direct commodity
turnover only. Certainly, one can and should search for new opportunities for
cooperation. I think there is enough potential, but the global economic crisis
has had a negative impact on the two countries’ economies. The fact that the
commodity turnover between the two countries is at the same level is a positive
result itself. And the decline fixed by the Armenian statistical service
probably concerns the assortment of Bulgarian goods imported to the republic
via the third countries. By our data, over the past three years the direct
commodity turnover between the two countries has been at a stable level of
about 26 mln EUR. Naturally, it is necessary to search for new ways to expand the
commodity turnover, increase the assortment of the goods supplied, but this is
under the jurisdiction of the Armenian-Bulgarian intergovernmental commissions
that meet once every two years and analyze the market trends and outline
certain measures to develop the bilateral trade and economic relations. One
should also take into account the fact that both Armenia and Bulgaria are
developing by the market economy principles and the state does not directly
regulate the trade and economic relations established via the direct contacts
between the businessmen and enterprises of the two countries.

 

 What joint
economic projects or joint ventures are there today?  

 

There are several joint ventures thanks to
the direct business contacts between Armenia and Bulgaria and to their mutual
interest. Armenia is interested in Bulgarian engineering products to produce
wine, cheese and other products. There are direct contacts and active cooperation
between the Bulgarian enterprises and the Armenian businessmen, who purchase
the engineering products in Bulgaria, install them and set up the relevant
production. The representatives of the Armenian community in Bulgaria have also
created several joint ventures.  Last
year I met an Armenian entrepreneur in Bulgaria who was setting up an
enterprise to produce dried fruit. There are also some companies that are going
to set up production in this sphere, which is not so typical to Bulgaria. I was
impressed by the large assortment of dried fruit when I first visited Armenia
in 2011.  Probably, there is a certain
niche for production of goods that are not so traditional for Bulgaria. There
are several offices engaged in travel industry and they organize the Armenian
citizens' vacation in Bulgaria's resorts.

 

The political dialogue between the two
countries is at a high level and so is the cooperation between the departments
and certain ministries. The embassies also provide their support. In 2012 a
fresh impetus was given to our political and cultural relations. Several
high-level visits took place; in particular, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria
paid an official visit to Armenia, and this visit was followed by the Culture
Minister's visit.  The Armenian Culture
Minister, in turn, paid an official visit to Bulgaria in late August early
September 2012 and participated in the events held within the framework of the
Armenian Culture Days in Bulgaria. Last year the two
countries signed a number of bilateral documents on deepening of the economic
relations. So, certain ministries of our countries conduct an active
dialogue. 

 

What Armenian commodities is Bulgaria interested in?  

 

Over the recent years Armenia has mostly
been exporting to Bulgaria crude ore, copper concentrate, aluminum foil, as
well as ragstone, epoxy resin and Armenian brandy. Bulgaria mostly exports to
Armenia medicaments, cosmetics, detergents, furniture and, as I have already
mentioned, engineering products.

 

How may the reconciliation between Bulgaria and Turkey
be applied to normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey? Can the
two countries use Bulgaria’s experience in this quite delicate issue?

 

Certainly, both
Armenia and Turkey may use the experience of positive development of relations
between Bulgaria and Turkey, but it is unreasonable to give any advice here. You
know, of course, that Bulgarian-Turkish relations used to face complications
and discrepancies, but over the past few years these relations were positively
developing and constantly strengthening. Bulgaria and Turkey have very good
relations in the political, economic and other spheres. It is very important
that our countries were able to build good neighborly ties, and one can no
doubt follow this positive example. Now Armenia is in a very hard situation
both in terms of communications and normalization with Ankara. Bulgaria would
welcome normalization between Armenia and Turkey. But this should be both
sides’ initiative. 

 

As it is known, Armenia has made the first step,
having signed the Armenian-Turkish protocols without any preconditions in 2009,
but the documents were not ratified by Turkey. Is the ball in Turkey’s field now?   

 

I am aware of the
difficulties that arose, but I wouldn’t like to comment on the specific
negotiations. I want to hope that sooner or later the two neighbors will manage
to find a mutually acceptable solution and come to an agreement, because it
meets the common interests of the two countries. 

 

As far as we know, the issue of opening of a direct flight
between Armenia and Bulgaria has been on the agenda of the bilateral relations
for a long time. What stage are the talks at, especially given that the open
skies concept may be applied in the country after Armavia’s withdrawal from the
market?

 

This issue has been discussed on political
and other levels for several years already as this is expected to give a new
impulse to political and trade-economic ties and to facilitate contacts between
Armenians and Bulgarians. Since Armenian-Bulgarian relations are yet developing
on a market basis mostly, the air carriers of the countries think that the
flight will not be profitable due to low demand. So, this, first of all,
requires agreement between the air carriers, who should find acceptable scenarios
for organizing the flight. No talks are being held for the moment but I hope
that the parties will find a way to solve this problem.

 

Bulgaria had similar problems with
St.Petersburg and Kyiv. For many years we had no direct flights with those cities,
but we first opened Sofia-Belgrade-Kyiv and Sofia-Helsinki-St.Petersburg
flights and only then, when we saw that the flights could bring profit, we
organized direct flights from Sofia to Kyiv and St.Peterdburg. As far as
Armenia is concerned, we also might use this model. We don't have a flight with
Tbilisi either, so, since both Armenia and Bulgaria have good relations with
Georgia, we might consider opening a Sofia- Tbilisi-Yerevan flight. I think
this will be an optimal choice. It will be good for all the three countries. I
hope the air carriers will also come to this conclusion.

 

What can you say about the cultural dialogue between
the two countries? ArmInfo, for instance, also made a modest contribution to
the publication of the Armenian-Bulgarian dictionary. It was a very interesting
project. Will such useful projects of mutual interest be initiated in the
future?     

 

The cultural and
educational dialogue between the two countries has always been at a very high
level. During the visit of our Culture Minister to Armenia in June 2012, a
three-year program on development of cultural ties was signed and the sides
came to the agreement to hold wide-scale events. In September the Days of
Armenian Culture were held in Bulgaria. In addition, many Bulgarian dancing and
music bands come to Armenia, and the Armenian ones visit Bulgaria. A big
caricature exhibition has recently held at the Artists’ Union in Yerevan and
several Bulgarian caricaturists have taken part in it. So, the cooperation is
very active, the mutual interest exists and the Embassy contributes to the
development of this process. Three years ago Armenia hosted the Days of
Bulgarian Culture and I think such an event will be organized again in a year
or two.  

 

As regards new
projects and the Armenian-Bulgarian dictionary, I can say that one of my first
meetings in Armenia right after my arrival in 2011 was the meeting with
Margarita Terezyan, who initiated creation of the dictionary. She has recently
finished the work at the second edition of the dictionary, which I hope will be
published soon. At least, the Embassy will exert all the necessary efforts to
support that process. There are direct contacts between the publishing houses
of the two countries. Over the past few years about a dozen Armenian books were
translated in Bulgaria. In Armenia Margarita Terezyan has translated the books
of Bulgarian authors and several Bulgarian tales. Such projects are implemented
regularly.

Thank you for the
interesting interview