Bulgaria, Brazil Pinpoint Key Economic Cooperation Sectors

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov (R) welcomes Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff before their meeting in in Sofia, Bulgaria, 05 October 2011. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff arrived on a two-day official visit in Bulgaria EPA

Agriculture, technologies, communications and education will be among the key economic spheres in which Brazil is willing to cooperate with Bulgaria, according to the Latin American country's President Dilma Rousseff.

"We achieved a great economic growth recently and succeeded in a number of industrial sectors including petroleum production, mining, agriculture and others – but Brazil's largest advantage is its immense population. This vast number of consumers presents an interesting collaboration opportunity when it comes to increasing the trade turnover between the two countries," Rousseff stated during her historic first visit to the Balkan country where her father was born.

Brazil is a strategic partner of the European Union and Bulgaria could play a very important part in the Latin American country's relations with the bloc, Rousseff further pointed out after meeting with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Sofia on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, speaking after her meeting with her Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov, Rousseff stated that trade between the two countries has been expanding for a decade before Bulgaria's joining of the EU, and then there has been a decline, particularly over the global economic crisis from 2008 until now. She pointed out that this crisis is interfering with having exact data on the current trade.

After her meeting with Brazil's first female President, Borisov described her as a "very dear guest" and insisted that she should do most of the speaking during the press conference in Sofia. "You have listened to me enough," he explained, as cited by the Dnevnik daily.

Borisov expressed his hope that many Brazilian students will be attracted to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Prime Minister further described Rousseff's visit as "symbolic".

"Thank you for helping Bulgaria in this way," Borisov said.

Dilma Vana Rousseff was born on December 14, 1947, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the family of Bulgarian immigrant Petar Rusev (1900-1962), also known as Pedro Rousseff, a lawyer and a construction entrepreneur, and Dilma Jane Silva was, a school teacher whose parents were ranchers.

In 2010, Rousseff won Brazil's presidential election, becoming the first female head of government ever in the history of Brazil, and the first de facto female head of state since the death of Maria I, Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1816.

Dilma Rousseff has been eagerly expected in Bulgaria, all the more so because she has made clear her good feelings towards the home country of her father.

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