Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov met with World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick in the Black Sea port city of Varna on Tuesday, Purvanov's Press Secretariat said. The meeting was also attended by European Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

Zoellick is on an official tour of Bulgaria, Moldova and Latvia to discuss development problems and the impact of the global economic crisis.

The Bulgarian President praised the consistent support extended by the World Bank for the structural and institutional reforms in the country.

He and the guest expressed their shared view that the World Bank's Country Partnership Strategy for Bulgaria (2006-2009) was a successful beginning of bilateral long-term cooperation. The goals of the Strategy were to help Bulgaria push ahead on structural reforms and provide resources to invest in high

productivity and employment, support the country's fiscal sustainability and EU funds absorption, and promote social inclusion.

Purvanov said that the Bulgarian public expects strong and efficient investment in the social sphere, which will contribute to the social inclusion of young people, the unemployed, the Roma community and other socially vulnerable groups. He and Zoellick noted the possibility for the World Bank to support Bulgaria to conduct necessary reforms in education.

Zoellick said that the region of Europe and Central Asia has been among the worst affected by the financial crisis and is still recovering from it. He confirmed the World Bank's readiness to help Bulgaria overcome the problem of decreased foreign investment. He also said that the World Bank and Bulgaria have the potential to establish a new model of cooperation aimed at improving the efficiency of absorbing EU structural funds.

Commissioner Georgieva said that European countries are implementing long-delayed reforms in their health care, social and pension systems. Bulgaria also needs to implement such reforms in order to step up the recovery of the national economy from the world financial and economic crisis, she said.

Source: BTA