“Bulgaria and Russia – Processes of European Integration, Economic Relations, Labour Markets”

This was the topic of the scientific meeting, organised in Sofia on June 3. It was conducted in implementation of bilateral research projects between the Economic Institute and the Institute on Sociology with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the Institute for Economic and Political Studies with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

This is the first Bulgarian-Russian project after the beginning of the changes, organised by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences and scheduled to continue until 2006.

Russia is a major foreign trade partner of Bulgaria. In 2001 its relative share in Bulgaria’s total commodity exchange amounted to 12.8%, whereas in 2003 – it dropped to 8%.

Bulgaria’s share in the Russian Federation’s commodity exchange has also been on the wane – from approximately 2% in 1996 to less than 1% in recent years.

In 2003 the Bulgarian exports for Russia marked an increase of 13.4%, yet their size remains inadequate as the Russian Federation accounts for a mere 1.4% of Bulgaria’s total exports. The imports from Russia maintain steady high levels and over the years they accounted for about 20% of Bulgaria’s total imports.

Bulgaria’s trade with Russia has a considerable negative balance, which is largely due to the supply of Russian energy resources – oil, gas, nuclear fuel, coal.

The main reasons indicated by researchers of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are the stiff competition on the Russian market, the Bulgarian companies’ restricted financial capacities to compete with leading world companies and the substantial foreign investments in the sectors of agriculture and the light industry, where the bulk of the Bulgarian exports is concentrated.

There is a considerable potential for the expansion of the trade-economic cooperation between the two countries, which is still inadequately used, commented the researchers of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The efforts should be directed to the optimisation of Bulgarian exports to the Russian market, which used to be of major importance for Bulgaria in the past.