The first Bulgarian company, which will start offering space travel tickets, will discuss its future project with the Chinese government and the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria. During the event, “China’s Development: Challenges and Opportunities” on Monday, the CEO of CenTransit John Hazlewood had the chance to meet the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Mrs. H.E. Fu Ying. They discussed several topics on how the space travel business can be developed in Bulgaria and China.
The idea of a potential cooperation between the two countries came during the Space Travel Summit, which was held on March 17 at the Sofia Opera and Ballet and was part of the agenda of “Trends & Innovation Travel Distribution & Investment Summit,” organized by eCommerceAcademy.net. A special guest and a keynote speaker at the Space Travel Summit was the top NASA astronaut Dr. Story Musgrave, who shared the vision that Bulgaria should develop its space travel solutions with the support of China.
“Story Musgrave inspired me to take the initiative and spearhead an effort to help the Bulgarian space industry work with China,” said John Hazlewood. He is planning his company CenTransit to be the first agency in the Balkans to sell space travel.
Mrs. Ying responded that it’s true that there is not much cooperation taking place between the Bulgarian and the Chinese space sectors at the moment. Despite that she stated: “People’s interest in space and the universe is growing significantly in China, and there are many of them who can afford to travel to space.” Mrs. Ying suggested the first step to be taken with the help of Mr. Guo Yezhou, Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria. Regarding this suggestion they made a decision for Mr. Hazlewood to meet the Ambassador for further discussions in order to try and find ways in which the two countries can cooperate.
The event “China’s Development: Challenges and Opportunities” was organized by The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria with the cooperation of the Embassy of China in Bulgaria.
