21.02.2019 / 16+1 Demonstration Center for E-Commerce in Plovdiv welcomed its first visitors
In Plovdiv, the first 16+1 Demonstration Center for e-commerce with agricultural and other products opened by the Association for the Promotion of Agricultural Cooperation between China and CEE Countries (APACCCEEC).
Besides European capital of culture in 2019, Plovdiv can be boldly called the capital of the 16+1 Initiative, said Vasil Gelev, Executive Director of APACCCEEC at the opening of the 16+1 Demonstration Center for e-commerce with agricultural and other products. “The Project’s model we present at the Agrarian University today is the natural continuation of the initiative that we started in 2017 to build a logistic hub within the territory of Trakia Economic Zone. From a great importance is the cooperation between agriculture, economy and the young people, it is important to encourage them in the development of digitization and the opening of new markets and opportunities”, Gelev said.
The 16+1 Demonstration Center for e-commerce with agricultural and other products is a comprehensive trade cycle model related to buying, storing, processing and selling later on international markets in bilateral cooperation between China and the CEE countries, and multilateral – between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe themselves. At the opening, the Executive Director of APAC made a demonstration through the Platform for consolidation of agricultural producers from China and the CEE countries www.16plus1cloud.org.
The Center at the Agricultural University is part of the “Demonstration Zone of Agricultural Cooperation between China and the Central and Eastern European Countries”, officially launched in 2018 by the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and China – Boyko Borisov and Li Keqiang, a model of a comprehensive agricultural cycle, from production to its realization on the world markets.
“The digitization in agriculture is part of the global initiative and there are already farms that are managed with mobile phone applications. The intelligent management of both farms and processing plants is an objective that, if we leave aside, Bulgaria will be lagging behind in its development”, said the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Rumen Porozhanov in his speech. I cannot miss out on the important work done by APACCCEEC on the perspective of China. Bulgaria is a pioneer in the agricultural initiative and it is no accident that the Association is in our country, the minister said. He encouraged the students by saying, “you live in an interesting and dynamic time in which you have to upgrade everything that we – the older and more experienced people are trying to do”.
The Rector of the Agricultural University – host of the Demonstration Center 16+1 for e-commerce with agricultural and other products Prof. Hristina Yancheva participated in the opening. “Young people have to be trained in an entrepreneurial spirit and I am very glad that this Center is located in the territory of AU”, Prof. Yancheva said. The ceremony was attended by Plovdiv’s Governor Zdravko Dimitrov, President of the Agricultural Academy Prof. Vasil Nikolov, students, lecturers, agricultural activists from South Bulgaria.
