Sharjah, Sept. 16, 2007 (WAM) -- Sheikh Tariq Bin FaisalAl Qassimi, Chairman of Emirates Investment Group (EIG), hasreceived the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev and discussed with him investment opportunities in the two countries.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister praised the ongoing growth and development in the UAE, which, he said, should serve as a bigexample for others. He also had a first hand information aboutthe projects that the EIG is executing in the tourism, real estate,and finance sectors.

The Bulgarian Premier called for the activating of the economicand investment cooperation between the Bulgarian business community and the EIG, noting that current level of cooperationbetween the two countries is good and that his government wasvery interested in further reinforcing bilateral relations, particularly in the area of joint investment by businessmenfrom the two countries.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister welcomed the interest shown by the EIG to enter the Bulgarian market that had witnessed an inflowof over Euro 4 billion as direct foreign investment during thelast year, with the real estate sector alone benefiting from66% of those investments.

He also noted that Bulgaria had witnessed the inflow of 6.6 milliontourists last year with the figure highly expected to increasesharply over the years ahead.

Sheikh Tariq Al Qassimi stressed on the need to expand theinvestment channels between GCC investors and their Bulgariancounterparts since the results can be mutually beneficial. Hesaid economic and investment relations between the two countriesare witnessing a period of continuous improvement, thanks tothe policies adopted by both states and the growing rates oftransparency and administrative competency, adding that bothcountries are deeply interested in boosting further the existingbilateral relations, in view of the fact that relationship betweenArab countries and Bulgaria has a deeply rooted historicbackground.