Only a day after Bosnia and Herzegovina got candidate status for EU membership, the Mayor of Brčko Municipality Esed Kadrić, together with representatives of Brčko’s city administration, arrived on a one-day official visit to Sofia. The delegation was received by the Mayor of Sofia Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova. Opportunities for cooperation and joint initiatives between the two municipalities were discussed. The guests presented to Mrs. Fandakova the administrative structure of Brčko and the incentives that Brčko district provides to local and foreign investors. The main purpose of the working meetings organized by Invest Sofia was to exchange best practices and discuss potential partner initiatives between Sofia and Brčko.
“Although Sofia and Brčko are situated in two neighboring countries, we communicate more often with European institutions than with each other. This is why such visits are very useful,” Nikolay Stoynev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Sofia Municipal Privatization & Investment Agency said during the meeting. He presented the EU programmes and projects that Sofia Municipality has been working on in recent years and good practices for dealing with urban issues that Sofia has already overcome. Within the current programming period, the Municipality of Sofia has implemented more than 50 European projects worth more than BGN 2.5 billion, of which BGN 1.8 billion in grant financing.
Potential initiatives in the field of tourism were also discussed. The Municipal Councilor and Chairman of the Permanent Commission for International Cooperation and Tourism, European programmes and projects, Ekaterina Yordanova, presented Sofia’s experience in promoting the city as a tourist destination, as well as various initiatives in the field. Anatoly Iliev, Municipal Councilor and Chairman of ‘Sofia – European Capital of Sport’, presented the initiatives and international events taking place in the city.
Our final discussion was devoted to business support mechanisms. Nikolay Tsenkov, Manager at MGFSME, spoke about the activities of the Municipal Guarantee Fund for SMEs, its projects, and the challenges faced by the institution. Head of the Investment Analyses Department at Invest Sofia, Viktor Gusev, presented the economic profile of Sofia Municipality and the Agency’s activities. During the talks, Invest Sofia undertook the initiative to coordinate future relations between Brčko and experts from the Sofia Municipality. Along with the Mayor of Brčko Esed Kadric, the meetings in Sofia were visited by the Chief Officer of the coordination Unit for the Brčko district at the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the heads of the departments “European Integration and International Cooperation”, “Economic Development” and “Regional Cooperation and Harmonization of Legislation”.
