Clusters, associations, and companies took part in the ‘Bulgaria Meets Sweden’ webinar, organized in collaboration with the Business Region Göteborg. The meeting was dedicated to the cooperation between Bulgaria and Sweden in the fields of ICT, manufacturing, and Industry 4.0.

With data and presentations, our Zoom meeting was kindly joined by the Embassy of Sweden in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Embassy in Sweden, the Swedish-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, the AI Cluster Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM), the Biotechnology and Health Cluster Bulgaria, Zagore Industrial Park (Stara Zagora), as well as the Bulgarian companies: B Eye, Bulbera, Droxic, Hyperaspect, ICB, Infoleven and Lencity. The strengths of Sweden in the Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Industry 4.0 sectors were presented by Mr. Erik Behm, Area & Investment Manager, Business Region Göteborg and Mr. Johan Hogsved, Co-founder & COO at Rebl Industries AB, Göteborg.

Ms.Nadia Sultanova, Director of Digitalization, Innovation, and Investment at Innovative Sofia, presented the potential of Sofia as an innovation and technology partner.

Some of Sofia’s strengths:

• The ICT sector is one of the fastest-growing in the city accounting for 19% of Sofia’s economy, 90% of the technology companies in the country, and 86% of the Bulgarian IT professionals.

• Manufacturing has been the most stable FDI recipient in recent years and accounts for 10% of the city’s economy, 17.5% of export earnings, and 9.7% of all employed in the capital.

• 15% of the startups in Sofia are in “deep tech” and the city has booming AI, Robotics, Automotive, Aerospace, and Biotechnology sectors 

A big thank you to Business Region Göteborg, Mr. Erik Behm and Mr. Johan Hogsved as well as to all sector associations and companies that presented their activities and projects in Sofia and Bulgaria.

We believe there are many synergies and opportunities for collaboration between Sweden and Bulgaria to be further explored in the future.

A list of upcoming events in Sweden that you might be interested to join. Most of the trade fairs are free to attend as a visitor. Business Region Göteborg representatives will be present at most of the events and can help Bulgarian companies in finding possible networking partners.

Stay tuned for more information about the opportunities for collaboration between Bulgaria and Sweden.