Last Year's Conference

“Bulgaria’s NATO Accession: Trade and Investment Opportunities”
23 – 24 June 2003, Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan, Bulgaria

Organized by AmCham Bulgaria with the kind support of: BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Raytheon Systems, Lockheed Martin, Harris Corporation, Electron Progress, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Cisco Systems and VMZ Sopot.

Over 200 participants met in Sofia for intensive discussion on business opportunities arising from Bulgaria’s NATO membership. Representatives from top defense contractors in the United States and Europe, as well as of Bulgarian leading companies met with the Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Army, high-ranking generals and officers and other top government officials.

The Conference started with opening remarks by Mr. Kenneth M. Lefkowitz, AmCham Bulgaria President and salutations on behalf of Mr. Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Prime Minister of Republic of Bulgaria, followed by conference addresses by Mr. Nikolay Svinarov, Minister of Defense, Gen. Nikola Kolev, Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Army and H.E. James Pardew, US Ambassador to Bulgaria.

Panel discussions were focused on the Defense Procurement, Investment Opportunities Arising from NATO Membership, Defense Communications and Information Systems and Bulgaria's Offset Policy.

Keynote speakers were David E.Potts, Ph.D., Lockheed Martin, Lt. General (Rtd.) William P. Hallin, NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency, A.G. (Tom) Leris, General Dynamics Corporation, Col. David Husband (Rtd.) OBE, BAE Systems, Gen.Major Ivan Ilevski, General Staff of Bulgarian Army, and Pavel Ezekiev, Chairman of Bulgarian Foreign Investment Agency.

Innovative strategies and new solutions were also presented by the other speakers: Thomas Cooper, Global Defense and Space Group, Cisco, Kaloyan Ninov, Deputy Minister of Economy, Sonya Yankulova, Deputy Minister of Defense, Col. (Res.) Efrem Radev, Advisor to VMZ Sopot, Georgy Bankov, Arkus Lyaskovets, Nikolay Ibushev, Arsenal, Michael Sipos, Business Council for International Understanding, Brian Sellwood, IBM Global Services, Phillip Knights, Raytheon Systems, Joost van Gemert, Lucent Technologies, Petar Georgiev, Samel-90, John Courtien, BAE Systems, Richard Dickson, Harris Corporation, Col. Kiril Stoychev, Ministry of Defense, Krassimir Pingelov, Electron Progress, David Broadbent, BAE Systems.

The President of Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov remarked at the closing session of the Conference that “This forum will provide a new impetus to the development of our defense industry and its cooperation with leading international defense companies and open up better opportunities for it in the framework of the strategic choice  already made by Bulgaria interest of its NATO membership.”

“This conference is a remarkable event for the Bulgarian defense industry”
– Georgi Parvanov, President of the Republic of Bulgaria

“The General Staff of the Bulgarian Armed Forces is attaching particular importance to the present conference”
– General Nikola Kolev, Chief of Staff of Bulgarian Army

“I am sure this conference will play a role to extend the cooperation between Bulgaria and the US”
– Nikolai Svinarov, Minister of Defense of RBulgaria