An Expo-Euro Danube International Trade Exposition is opening in Calarasi, Romania, on December 14, said the President of the Rousse-based Louis Hailler Bulgarian-Swiss Association, Todor Mitev.

This is the first of four such contracting expositions that the Calarasi Chamber of Industry and Agriculture and the Louis Hailler Association will organize until the end of 2008 under a 130,385 euro Phare Cross-Border Cooperation Program project for joint economic development of the Calarasi-Silistra cross-border region.

Thirty-seven Bulgarian and thirty Romanian companies of the food industry, mechanical engineering, the furniture and cosmetics industries and other sectors are expected to take part in Friday's expo. Mitev said that 12 leading Romanian banks and insurers are seeking contacts with Bulgarian companies. The municipalities of Alfatar, Kainardja and Toutrakan will present their investment opportunities.

Calarasi will host one more such expo, in June 2008, and the ones in Silistra are scheduled for April and October. More than 200 Bulgarian and Romanian companies are expected to participate in the four venues. A catalogue of information on some 140 companies from the Silistra and Calarasi areas is already available.

The objective of the project is to create a permanent infrastructure assisting the presentation and development of the economy in the cross-border region through increase of production, technologies and the exchange of know-how.