Bulgarian and Israeli companies and government representatives looked for ways to intensify trade ties between the two countries at a Bulgarian-Israely Business Forum held Thursday.

Among the opportunities discussed was exporting drinking and irrigation water from Bulgaria to Israel to allay the water shortage in the Middle East country.

Another topic discussed was the massive exploration for natural gas Israel is conducting in the Mediterranean. If its promising prospects are fulfilled, Israel will be ready to export gas to Bulgaria and greatly contribute to diversification of supplies, according to Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Uzi Landau, who was present at the event.

Other fields of possible cooperation was the energy sector, information technologies, recycling and agriculture machine construction.

Bulgarian Ministry of Economy Traicho Traikov stated that although trade between the two countries has more than doubled in volume since 1990, it is still not up to its potential and has room for considerable development.