The ambassador was welcomed by Deputy General Director Mr. Nguyen Chi Trang and representatives of departments such as: International Cooperation, Treasury and Administration Office.
At the meeting, the Ambassador shared the information on macroeconomic situation of Bulgaria. In addition, on behalf of Bulgarian embassy to Vietnam, the commercial counselor presented about Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), which has very similar functions, missions and organization structure to VDB.
BDB, as successor of Encourage Bank, has been established in 1999 and is 99.9%-owned by the Bulgarian government. Its operations focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises. BDB is among the top four Bulgarian banks in terms of credit rating, rated BBB-by Fitch Ratings.
From VDB’s side, Deputy General Director Mr. Nguyen Chi Trang introduced the functions, missions and achievements that VDB has been achieving in recent years and expressed his wish to build up a long-term cooperation between the two banks in the future. Both sides agreed to seek opportunities for the cooperation, aiming to strengthen the economy of the two countries and support for small and medium-sized enterprises in both Bulgaria and Vietnam. VDB would consider the cooperation opportunities for Bulgarian enterprises expecting to invest in Vietnam regarding to its advantage areas, such as: manufacturing rose oil, yogurt, white cheese, agricultural machine equipment…
On this occasion, the Ambassador invited VDB’s leaders and staffs to visit Bulgaria to seek cooperation opportunities and support Vietnam enterprises to invest in Bulgaria, contributing to the sustainable economic growth of the two countries.
The Ambassador expressed his desire to establish a legal framework for this cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, scheduled for August, 2016 to create a legal basis, long-term and sustainable development for the cooperation. Mr. Nguyen Chi Trang agreed to set up a contact point for information exchange and launching this process at the earliest time possible.
Vietnam and Bulgaria have had over 60 years of traditional friendly relationship since 1950. For that, the two banks believe that, through the upcoming MOU between VDB and BDB, the cooperation between two organizations will be strengthened, opening up development projects in the future to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam and Bulgaria, contributing to the economic growth of the two countries.