The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Ljupcho Nikolovski and the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Bulgaria Ivan Ivanov today signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of agriculture, agricultural sciences, rural areas and forestry.

The signing was part of a joint session of the two countries' governments held in Sofia.

Minister Nikolovski pointed out that this important bilateral Agreement is a major step in strengthening and advancing bilateral and trade cooperation.

- I believe that in the following period we will deliver results. Today we signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Minister of Agriculture of Bulgaria Ivan Ivanov, we discussed the importance of the agricultural sector, for the two countries to increase cooperation and jointly deliver results. Northern Macedonia is a leader in the region in terms of utilization of IPARD programs, and the experience of Bulgaria as an EU member state will be of great importance in the implementation of the Instruments for Pre-Accession Assistance in the EU. Improving forestry and hunting will be one of the priorities in the next period of work, said Nikolovski.

According to him, preparations for the formation of working groups from the two ministries in all areas of the Memorandum will begin immediately and the first meeting of the groups will be held at the beginning of next month.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Memorandum opens the possibility for close cooperation between the competent institutions of Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria in several areas. The inter-ministerial working groups that will be formed in a short period of time will work on developing cooperation in the field of: implementation of EU Instruments for Pre-Accession Assistance, agricultural sciences, forestry and hunting, organic production and processing of organic agricultural products, biotechnology in agriculture and in livestock, selection and reproduction in animal husbandry, as well as transnational cooperation in rural areas and other areas of common interest.

In addition to technical and administrative cooperation, the two ministries will exchange scientific and technical information and expert experience in the field of agriculture, will organize seminars and trainings, will work on the implementation of joint research programs in agriculture and agricultural sciences.

Today, within the intergovernmental session, Minister Nikolovski together with his fellow ministers from the Republic of Bulgaria participated in the first meeting with the working group on economy, energy, finance, innovation and development, investments and agriculture, which laid the foundations for work in the areas and deadlines for meeting priorities have been set.

Source: MIA