Bulgaria will step up co-operation with South Africa, a country it has declared a strategic partner, and the continent as a whole. The announcement came at the end of last week, when Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev visited Pretoria.

Bulgaria's re-newed involvement on the continent would help the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) programme, set up in 2001 to draft a development framework for Africa. Before the fall of communism in 1989, Bulgaria gave thousands of African students the opportunity to study in Europe, many of whom were later employed in key positions after returning home, South African deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said, as quoted by Johannesburg-based daily Business Day on March 17.

Bulgaria's membership in the European Union would create additional opportunities for economic co-operation, he added.

“We will continue to discuss the African challenges, not only the conflict situations, but the broad progressive developments in Africa, in all fields of the African d evelopmental a genda through Nepad and opportunities for Bulgaria,” Pahad said, as quoted by Business Day.

"Most important, the minister has now given us concrete recommendations rather than general statements about areas of co-operation in all of these fields and we will discuss these with the relevant ministries to see how we can further develop our relations with Bulgaria.”

The sectors are energy, transport, infrastructure development, health and agriculture, Pahad said.

Last year, trade between the two countries totalled around 500 million rand, or 38.9 million euro, much less than the potential for bilateral relations. “We hope that the president of Bulgaria is going to visit the region. It will give an impetus the potential that exists,” Pahad said, as quoted by Business Day.