Bilateral Commercial and Economic Relations :

In order to enhance trade and economic cooperation between both the countries, bilateral institutional arrangements like Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation at Governmental level, Joint Business Council at non-governmental level and Working Groups on four different sectors have been set up and have been meeting regularly.

 Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation(JCM)

The Indo-Bulgarian Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was set up at Government level in 1973. The Ministry of Agriculture was the nodal Ministry coordinating the activities of JCM till the 15th Session. The mandate has now been shifted to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. There are four Working Groups under the aegis of JCM i.e 1) Working Group on Agriculture and related sectors; 2) Working Group on Commerce and Industry; 3) Working Group on Electronics and Information Technology; 4) Working Group on Science and Technology. Fifteen meetings have already taken place and the 15th meeting was held in India in November, 2004. An IT Forum was set up during the 15th JCM. The 16th Session is due and is to be held in Sofia.

 Joint Business Council(JBC)

The Indo-Bulgarian Joint Business Council was set up in 1976 at non-Government level between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and ASSOCHAM and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Eleven meetings of the JBC have so far been held alternately in India and Bulgaria. The 11th meeting of JBC was held in India in November, 2004 along with the 15th JCM.

 Joint Working Group on Information Technology

The third meeting of the India - Bulgaria Joint Forum on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT Forum) was held on 15 October 2007 at New Delhi. The four member Bulgarian delegation was led by the Chairman of the State Agency for IT, Plamen Vatchkov. It was agreed to further strengthen ICT cooperation between the two countries in the priority areas of e-Governance, Technology Park, ICT education, Research & Development and Info-Security.

 Bilateral Trade Statistics

The first Trade and Rupee payment agreement between India and Bulgaria was signed in 1956. The two-way trade was switched from Rupee Trade to Freely Convertible Currency trade in January 1979.

The following table shows Bulgaria’s trade with India during the last few years:

*EURO = 1.95583 BGN (Pegged under Currency Board arrangement)
*USD = 1.46042 BGN at the average exchange rate of BNB for the month of December 2008
**USD = 1.49588 at the rate of exchange for May 2009

(In case of exports it is the country of final destination. In case of imports, it is the country of consignment of goods).

 Major Indian Exports to Bulgaria :

Vegetables and fruits; coffee, tea, cocoa and spices; sugar, sugar preparations and honey; feeding stuff for animals; textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles; pharmaceuticals etc.

 Major Bulgarian Exports to India :

Inorganic chemicals and related products, machines and transport equipment, manufactured goods, derivatives of hydrocarbon, iron scrap, copper and aluminum waste etc.