BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 26. It’s time for the
friendship between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan to turn into a bridge for
extra important power diversification, Kiril Petkov, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, mentioned in an unique
interview with Development.
Speaking concerning the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which is
aimed toward transporting Azerbaijani gasoline to Bulgaria’s gasoline the prime
minister mentioned that it’s 99 p.c full.
“For 12 years throughout the earlier authorities, the IGB challenge
hasn’t been completed, it was delayed. I’m very proud to have led
the federal government that managed to finish this challenge in six months.
Within the subsequent weeks, the IGB will likely be totally working. It’s completed
on 99 p.c and in
the following half of the yr, the IGB will likely be totally working. We’re
taking a look at few remaining actions that completely should be
accomplished previous to business launch to verify every thing is
working safely and correctly and that we’ve stored the very best
trade requirements,” Petkov defined.
He identified that the EPC contractor AVAX must proceed in
a immediate method with the remaining actions for the mixing
and testing of the SCADA system.
“The remainder is generally below the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian and
Greek establishments – a lot of administrative procedures that
must be accomplished in order that we are able to get the challenge’s equal of
Act 16. The same old deadlines right here can take about 3 months however we
boosted in Bulgaria a prealignment course of with all establishments
proactively asking for his or her inexperienced gentle for guaranteeing IGB’s
business begin. There’s an lively and devoted political and
institutional assist to restrict the estimated timeline,” mentioned the
prime minister.
Petkov went on so as to add that in Bulgaria there’s already an
established working group with representatives of all related
establishments that’s set to work on methods to optimize the procedural
deadlines.
“The IGB challenge is of immense nationwide and regional significance.
I even had weekly calls on the IGB progress with prime minister
Kiriakos Mitsotakis on the progress – that is to point out you the extent
of dedication of each governments to assist the efforts and
measures for the IGB to achieve operational readiness. In an
more and more interconnected world, power safety challenges are
advanced and infrequently require a coordinated regional strategy. Bulgaria
has been actively working to extend the potential of the regional
cooperation by selling completion of the lacking power
infrastructure and guaranteeing safety of power provides in South
East Europe. That is the street for power independence, for Bulgaria
and for Southern and South-East Europe. It is going to seriously change
the extent of dependency of our nation,” he added.
Petkov famous that early on, Bulgarian authorities understood the
significance of gasoline independency and power safety on an area,
regional and European degree.
“Bulgaria has gone from 95 p.c dependency to 0, and we
launched into a quick course of securing gasoline deliveries for Bulgarian
residents and enterprise. In an effort to lower our power dependency,
I travelled to Baku and my assembly with President Ilham Aliev, who
was inclined to assist us get extra amount through Turkey, could be very
a lot appreciated. Throughout my go to, with President Ilham Aliyev we
mentioned the opportunity of extra Azerbaijani gasoline provides to
Bulgaria and Azerbaijan’s political readiness to assist Bulgaria.
Nonetheless, additional growth of the gasoline infrastructure and
consolidating cooperation amongst international locations within the area is
vital for guarantying future safety of provide and
diversification,” mentioned the prime minister.
Petkov identified that there’s a mutual want to broaden the
bilateral financial cooperation.
“Azerbaijan is a vital power accomplice of Bulgaria. However we
have additionally discovered many widespread financial alternatives within the fields of
agriculture, chemical fertilisers, development, defence trade
and IT. With a view to the widespread challenges, it’s extra vital
than ever to proceed constructing on the lively high-level political
dialogue between our international locations. And I’m very glad that Bulgaria
will quickly open an honorary consulate in Azerbaijan. It’s time for
the friendship between our two international locations to turn into a bridge for
future strategic financial initiatives and extra important power
diversification,” Kiril Petkov concluded.
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Observe the writer on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
