Opportunities and Prospects for Japan’s Investments in Bulgaria

This expert report has been prepared by Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in connection with the initiative of the President of the Republic and the Embassy of Japan for a Bulgaria-Japan Business Meeting on February 5th, 2020. It presents an analysis and assessment of the opportunities and prospects for Japan’s investments in Bulgaria, in particular:•Main trends in Japan’s investments in the EU Member States from Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE) are studied and outlined to identify the specifics of Japan‘s investments abroad by countries, sectors, productions, forms, in which they invest. In this way, a targeted approach is introduced, tailored to the specifics of these investments.•A historical overview is presented – the successes of trade and economic cooperation in the area of investments, in order to outline how the good practices and experiences in the past would support future investments from Japan in Bulgaria.•A critical review of the comparative advantages of investing in Bulgaria is presented along with an identification of those, that are important to Japanese investors.•Studied is the current European regulatory framework for foreign investments in order to identify the opportunities and policies that could support Japanese investors in Bulgaria as an EU Member State.•Outlined are important strategic priorities of the Bulgarian economy in regard to the development of innovations, information technologies and green economy, in order to direct the interest of Japanese investors towards them.•Identified are the opportunities for using the local raw materials through Japanese investments in Bulgaria, as well as the potential for waste processing and circular economy.•Determined are sectors and productions where the capacity and interest of the Japanese investors coincide with the opportunities and advantages of the Bulgarian economy.•Identified are economic sectors and productions of mutual interest to Japanese investors and Bulgarian business.Attracting investments from Japan would have a significant national economic effect in implementing the strategic long-term priorities of the country. For the Bulgarian business, this would expand the economic space to high technologies and partnerships with Japanese companies and the access of Bulgarian goods to the Japanese market. For the Japanese economy and investors, expanding the economic space to Bulgaria would have a strong positive effect, including increasing their presence on the EU markets.