Bulgarian government signs memo with defence industry on improved co-operation

A memorandum on improving the interaction between the Bulgarian defence industry and the government was signed on July 16, the Defence Ministry said in a media statement.

The memo was signed by the Minister of defence Atanas Zapryanov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev, Minister of Economy and Industry Petar Dilov, Deputy Minister of Education Nikolai Vitanov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences president Evelina Slavcheva, and representatives of the Bulgarian defence industry association.

The statement said that through the memo, the participants agree to work to establish a new type of partnership relations by improving communication and interaction, shortening the distance and achieving a higher level of synergy between science, business and responsible institutions.

The memo envisages stimulating innovation and technology transfer; active use of the opportunities arising from Bulgaria’s membership in Nato and the EU, including by encouraging the participation of the Bulgarian defence industry in international programs and projects with a defence focus; and support for small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector, with an emphasis on their integration into global supply chains.

It also envisages ensuring a favorable regulatory and administrative environment that facilitates the production and trade of defence products and contributes to expanding the export potential of the Bulgarian defence industry in accordance with national and international requirements.

“The urgent need for the rearmament of Europe gives a clear signal for entering a new phase of cooperation between European countries in the field of defence,” Zapryanov said.

He said that special attention is paid to the participation of the European defence industry, stimulating production capabilities, increasing Europe’s industrial capacity and reducing the fragmentation of the European defence potential in the short term (by 2030-2035).

Zapryanov emphasised the growing importance of Bulgaria’s place in European defence as a border state on the Eastern flank and the maximum use of the new opportunities and measures set out in the White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030 and the available European mechanisms and instruments in the field of defence.

In this context, the main focus of the Ministry of Defence is on the opportunities for accelerating the rearmament and modernisation of the Bulgarian Army and the implementation of national plans for building the necessary defence capabilities, Zapryanov said.

He emphasised support for the full inclusion of the Bulgarian defence industry in the process of rearmament of Europe.

“We believe that now is the right time to modernize and outline the guidelines for specialization and development of the capacity and technological leap of the Bulgarian defence industry,” he said.

Donchev said: “The industrialisation of the armed forces can become the new accelerator of the Bulgarian economy. We have a unique chance and we should not miss it. We need to awaken the potential we have in the sector and stimulate more and more young people to study to be engineers”.

Dilov said that the Ministry of Economy and Industry will continue to work to expand access of Bulgarian enterprises to European and national financing instruments, to promote technology transfer, innovation and increasing production capacity.

“We will encourage the creation of stable public-private partnerships, because we are convinced that the sustainable development of the defence sector can only be achieved through the combined efforts of the state, industry and the scientific community,” Dilov said.

Bulgarian National Radio reported Petar Georgiev as saying on behalf of Bulgaria’s defence industry that the sector is better appreciated abroad than in this country.

Georgiev called on the state leadership to draft its strategies together with them.

He called on the state to prefer Bulgarian, not foreign, defence companies.

In 2023, the production of the 16 private companies in the defence sector is worth just over 4.2 billion leva. The Ministry of Defence has placed orders for 50-100 million leva, he said.

(Photo: Ministry of Defence)