Bulgarian and Turkish customs chiefs met on 9 October to discuss expanding the border crossings between the two countries, because traffic, mostly lorries, keeps growing, the Bulgarian Customs Agency said. The talks were held at Turkey's Hamzabeyli crossing, opposite Lesovo.
Lesovo and Malko Tarnovo will be rebuilt to improve border facilities. Under the Lesovo plan, the crossing will get twice as many lanes for lorries and will be able to handle twice as many vehicles.
Repairs at Kapitan Andreevo are continuing. There is also a plan for a separate crossing for heavy goods vehicles only, to be called Kapitan Andreevo North.
Goods vehicles of up to 3.5 tonnes already cross at Malko Tarnovo, under an agreement with Turkish customs.
Nikolay Shushkov, head of the Bulgarian Customs Agency, said the work will be done in stages and will not hold up traffic. He said the two sides now meet regularly, and that the way the two customs services work together can serve as an example of good cooperation. Today's meeting is the latest in a series of working talks.
The Turkish delegation was led by Sezai Ucarmak, deputy trade minister and head of Turkey's customs administration. With him was Mustafa Gumus, director general of Turkey's General Directorate of Customs. Ucarmak said cooperation with Bulgarian customs is very important for Turkey, and thanked the agency for the good joint work.
Also attending for Bulgaria were Ivan Panayotov, head of the Burgas Customs regional directorate, and the heads of the border crossings: Radostina Sachanova (Lesovo), Georgi Gospodinov (Kapitan Andreevo) and Georgi Cheshitev (Malko Tarnovo). Ginka Konyarska, director of the International Activity directorate, was also there.