The event was attended by the Mayor of Ruse Municipality Pencho Milkov, HE Rob Dixon, ambassador of the United Kingdom in Bulgaria, Dimitar Minchev, manager of "Astra Bioplant" EOOD, Petar Ganev, senior researcher from the Institute for Market Economy and Lyudmila Velikova, manager at "Toki" company.

At the forum, the topics of the state of the economy in Ruse, the improvement of transport connections in the area and innovations in business for more ecological and clean enterprises were touched upon. It was opened by Ambassador Rob Dixon, who stated in his welcome speech that it was a real pleasure for him to visit this beautiful city for the first time and thanked the organizers for inviting him to participate in the event.

"In Ruse, there is an exceptional palette of economic enterprises in all spheres, and this is the strength of our city. We have a unique educational system that prepares personnel for all spheres of the economy, and the University of Ruse is one of the leaders in the country in the training of technical specialists". This was stated by Pencho Milkov in response to a question regarding the vision of the Ruse Municipality for the city's economy. According to Milkov, the Danube city is spoken of as the northern capital of Bulgaria, and its power is both cross-border, arising from the connection with the capital of our northern neighbor, and with its influence on the life and economy of the small municipalities in Northeastern Bulgaria.

The manager of "Astra Bioplant" joined the panel on the topic, who confirmed that the conditions for doing business in the region are very good, emphasizing the presence of a well-developed industry. He emphasized that there is a need to improve transport connectivity and the lack of a highway hampers business opportunities. According to him, the traffic jams on the Danube bridge also play a decidedly negative role in the supply of goods and raw materials, and he defined the problem as an administrative one. Pencho Milkov, for his part, fully agreed with his statement and added that the current transport regimes between Romania and Bulgaria, as well as with the rest of Bulgaria's neighboring countries, can be eased, which will significantly reduce the load on the border checkpoints.

On the question of the cleanliness of the air in Ruse, the mayor of Ruse Municipality pointed out that in addition to pollution, there are also unpleasant smells that people feel. According to him, unregulated discharges of substances are available, but in this case the state should intervene, since the municipalities have control functions only in relation to fine dust particles. Pencho Milkov noted that the municipality is already refusing investments from companies that would worsen the air quality in the city.

The Mayor of the Municipality of Ruse also shared about the signed agreement with the economic zone "Trakya" and emphasized that in southern Bulgaria these zones are growing and improving by applying certain economic models. They are based on the dual training of future personnel, who quickly become quality specialists contributing to the development of companies in the field.

At the end of the meeting, Pencho Milkov also spoke about the Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo highway and defined its implementation as vital not only for the city, but for the entire region. He stated that there has been no unified policy regarding its construction in the last 10 years and this is one of the main reasons for the impossibility of building the highway.