The cultural closeness between the Balkan nations and their strategic position in Europe provide them with many business opportunities if they have a competent financial partner by their side. UniCredit, through its network developed in an excellent way and its leading position in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as with its expert team, is ready to support its clients’ international business expansion. This was the message of Emiliano Steinfl, Head of the International Center of UniCredit Bulbank, to the participants in the Bulgarian-Serbian Day Business Forum. The purpose of the initiative is to present to the Serbian companies the opportunities for entering the Bulgarian market and the expectations for development of the country’s economy. “We understand that sometimes clients simply decide to keep their business local, however, we tell those seeking expansion that we have the instruments and that together, hand in hand, we can help them realize their goals“, said Steinfl.

Stamen Yanev, the director of InvestBulgaria Agency, and representatives of UniCredit Bulbank and UniCredit Serbia took part in the forum.‏ The Bulgarian-Serbian Forum is the second of this kind, following the success of the Bulgarian-Romanian Day: Bridges, held at the beginning of March.

“The best proof of our in-depth and global knowledge in the fields of financing and consultancy services, markets and global transactions is the number of our clients: UniCredit has more than 27 thousand international clients in CEE; more than 14,600 of them are German, Austrian and Italian companies. We definitely rely on the “one bank” business model as a standard for the quality of services which we apply in all of our branches, relying on synergy and simplification of the operations“, said the official host of the event, Antoaneta Curteanu, Director of Corporate and Investment Banking and Private Banking Division and member of the Management Board of UniCredit Bulbank. Her words were supported by Niccolo Bonferroni, Head of International Customers Department of UniCredit Bank Serbia, who pointed out that 65% of approximately 2,000 international companies operating in Serbia are serviced precisely by UniCredit.

During the second part of the forum the chief economist of UniCredit Bulbank, Kristofor Pavlov, presented the expectations of the analysis team of the bank for the development of the country’s economy. According to the analysis, export will be the main driving force behind the stable post-crisis recovery of the countries from the region. Bulgarian economy will reach its highest point next year, reporting a GDP growth of 4%.

However, economic growth may be limited in the long term due to workforce shortage which is already observed in the sectors where highly qualified labour is required. As a measure against this, Kristofor Pavlov believes that education has to become a main priority.

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Additional media information:

Victoria Blajeva, tel +359 (0) 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Beatris Nikolova, tel +359 (0) 2 9232 528, cfbusjt/ojlpmpwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, tel +359 894 518 193 , flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch