By Vaso Vegiri

 

 

The Bulgarian participation counts 60 companies from sectors such as energy, circular economy, industry, innovation-technology

 

The 87th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) will be held from September 9 to September 17 with Bulgaria as an honored country and the participation of 1,500 exhibitors, 382 small and medium sized enterprises, 49 chambers and nine special events.

 

The latest developments in several sectors will be presented, including Entrepreneurship, Akademia, Greece of the Regions, Circular Economy, Gastronomy-Nutrition, Digital Greece Start ups, Public Organizations, Cosmos-International Participations and Furniture-Home Equipment.

 

A total of 18 countries will participate this year, together with the honored country, Bulgaria. In fact, South Korea, Moldova and Thailand are participating for the first time, while the remaining countries are Cyprus, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Uruguay, Ukraine, Armenia, Iran, Italy, Poland, France, Serbia, India and Nepal.

 

The honoured country

 

The Bulgarian participation counts 60 companies from sectors such as energy, circular economy, industry, innovation-technology, food, transport-logistics, cosmetics, tourism, primary sector, packaging and services at pavilion 13, covering 2,600 sq.m.

 

The fair will be accompanied by a number of parallel events, with a focus on culture, but also on Greek-Bulgarian economic relations. Among them is the Greece-Bulgaria Conference on Monday, September 11 at the "I.Vellidis" Conference Center, which will raise a number of issues of common interest for the two countries and will open the dialogue on important issues, such as ports and infrastructure, the technological innovation and digital connectivity, energy and circular tourism.

 

Visitors to the Bulgarian pavilion will have the opportunity to watch the presentation of the Supercomputer, a world-class petascale computer, while at the same time, presentations and demonstrations of cutting-edge technologies in pharmaceuticals, robotics and virtual reality are planned, as well as educational activities for the new STEM learning methods.

 

There are also many events in the field of culture with music, theater and dance performances.

 

The participation of the Central Union of Chambers of Greece is dynamic with 49 Chambers and 382 small and medium-sized enterprises from the whole country.

 

As for the other thematic events, the following are worth noting:

 

The Circular Economy event is a section of the fair in which companies present innovative heating and cooling systems, specialized applications and products, as well as interesting proposals for modern construction. It is spread over 3,000㎡ in outdoor and indoor spaces with more than 55 entries.

 

AKADEMIA's dedication to education-research-innovation (Pavillion 14) is the meeting point of the educational community. Thirteen top public and private educational institutions will present new study programs, innovative bachelor's, master's, doctoral programs, as well as programs based on Open and Distance Education.

 

The program of the events of the 87th TIF is particularly rich. The 3rd Economist Conference on September 7 and 8 will also be hosted at the "I. Vellidis" conference center with the title "The new road map of Greece after the elections - Building reliable partnerships in the region". At the opening session, Foreign Minister, George Gerapetritis and the former Prime Minister of France, Dominique De Villepin, will speak, while the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolai Denkov, will also speak at the closing session.

 

In the program of the 87th TIF also stands out the Conference on the Management of Natural Disasters entitled "Protecting life-Building resilience", which will take place on Wednesday September 13 at the "I.Vellidis" Conference Center, an organization of the Economist in collaboration with TIF-HELEXPO.

 

Sports will also be "present" at the 87th TIF. From September 11 to September 15, the "TIF 5X5 Football Tournament" will be organized with the message "No to violence" with 5X5 football matches every day on a field that will be set up inside the TIF.

 

At the same time the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas is presented in a great cultural tribute as well as a series of other music and dance events.

On the second weekend of the TIF, September 16 and 17, the 55th TIF Rally will be held by the Automobile Club of Thessaloniki.

 

"Bulgaria is by our side, not now, but since 1926, when it participated in the 1st TIF", as TIF-HELEXPO president, Tasos Tzikas, pointed out during a press conference ahead of the opening of the 87th TIF, underlining the great honor for the exhibition organization to welcome the neighbor as an Honored Country. He even described it as a strategic partner of Greece and estimated that its participation will leave a positive mark on the investment and business relations of the two countries.

 

"It is an honor for us to be here 100 years after the first participation," according to Bulgaria's Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry, Nikolay Pavlov, emphasizing that it is a recognition of his country's role in the region, but also a huge opportunity for Bulgaria to present itself and all the projects it plans for the future. He pledged that the Bulgarian side will do everything possible to strengthen Greek-Bulgarian relations and create new business and investment opportunities and invited the world to visit the Bulgarian pavilion.