Bulgaria Eyes Business Deals with Brazil

Rousseff will seek to develop business relations and trade between Brazil and Bulgaria even though her visit has been widely described as personal and emotional since it includes a stay in the hometown of her father Gabrovo.

The business delegation, which accompanies President Rousseff, will seek contacts with Bulgarian entrepreneurs during a business conference organized jointly with the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce.

More than 200 companies have registered to take part in the conference and organizers say they are very hopeful that it can lead to fruitful contacts with the economic giant of Latin America.

The trade relations between the two countries are deplorably undeveloped and in practice there are no Brazilian investments in Bulgaria.

A day earlier Rousseff said Europe can count on Brazil, but pointed out that developed nations should take measures to stimulate growth and reduce unemployment, and not focus solely on austerity programmes.

"The world today sees the current state of affairs in developed countries with great concern," she told a news conference after an EU-Brazil summit in Brussels.
The world has entered "stage two" of an economic crisis following the 2008 global financial turmoil, which led to bailouts of banks that increased the debts of developed nations, Rousseff said.

"We were not able to resume sustained growth and once again we face a recessive scenario marked by high unemployment and deterioration of historic social achievements," she said.
"History shows us that we will only be able to exit the crisis through stimuli to economic growth, coupled with macroeconomic stability policies as well as social policies aimed at creating jobs and income," she said.

"Simply adopting recessive adjustments is not enough," she said.