On May 9-10, the Bulgarian city of Varna hosted a brokerage event – the Regional Business Forum “BOOSTING BLACK SEA BLUE BIZ – 4BIZ,” in which representatives of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster, led by Executive Director Olena Zhukova, participated.

The event aimed to provide a foundation for B2B, B2G, and B2C cooperation by facilitating the exchange of ideas, best practices, and Blue Business knowledge to identify new directions for successful entrepreneurial activities. The event served as a platform for dialogue and idea exchange on Blue Business proposals between entrepreneurs, innovative companies, startups, and stakeholders such as business associations, chambers of commerce, universities, professional business consultants, local authorities, innovation clusters, and others.

During the plenary session “Blue Horizons – Navigational Resilience and Sustainability in the Black Sea Region and Europe,” speakers included Eden Mamut, Coordinator of the 4BIZ project, Black Sea Universities Network; Georgia Chantsy – Black Sea Economic Cooperation / ICBSS; Oscar Díaz, Managing Director of ACLUNAGA Asociación Cluster del Naval Gallego; Stavros Kalognomos, Executive Secretary of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions; and Zoya Stoyanova, Chief Expert, Municipality of Burgas.

To moderate the session “Black Sea Business Negotiations and Roundtable” with the participation of business representatives and industry experts from the Maritime Transport sectors
Olena Zhukova, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster, was invited to moderate the session “Black Sea Business Negotiations and Roundtable” with the participation of business representatives and industry experts from the Maritime Transport, Coastal and Maritime Tourism, Fisheries, and Aquaculture sectors. 

B2B meetings also took place between the leaders of leading maritime companies in the Black Sea region and investors and stakeholders. Yuriy Zhukov, Director of “C- Job Nikolayev ” LLC and a member of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster, participated in these meetings. Additionally, companies from the region were presented – MDEM, C- Job Nikolayev.

Representatives and members of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster, along with students from Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, joined the event online.

The 4BIZ brokerage events aim to foster innovation, which is one of the project’s objectives. Innovation requires investments, as well as partners, knowledge, personnel, and other resources to ensure successful business development. This was the third such event held as part of the 4BIZ project, and it was important that members of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster were able to participate both physically and online. Among the active participants were LLC “MDEM,” LLC “C-Job Nikolayev LLC,” LLC “Company Gulfstream,” and LLC “Amico Digital,” which have become the “white horses” (i.e., leading enterprises) of the maritime sector in the Black Sea region, proudly representing Ukraine on the international stage, noted Olena Zhukova, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster.

You can learn more about the 4BIZ project at the following link.