Trade between Romania and Italy surpasses EUR 11 bln

Trade between Romania and Italy has reached a value of EUR 11.56 bln in 2008, according to a communiqué issued by the Italian Foreign Trade Institute, Agerpres informs. Romania’s exports to Italy totaled EUR 5.18 bln, while its imports from Italy totaled EUR 6.38 bln.

The two countries’ trade on the foodstuffs sector stood at EUR 456.2 M in 2008, representing approximately 4 per cent of the total trade between them. Romania has imported from Italy agricultural products and foodstuffs worth EUR 270.9 M, with Italy being Romania’s 4th largest source of agricultural imports, being surpassed only by Hungary, Germany and The Netherlands.

The Italian Foreign Trade Institute continues its ‘Italian Festival’ in Romania with a week dedicated to culinary art.

Dubbed ‘Eating in Italian restaurants,’ the event is scheduled from May 29 to June 4. 21 Italian restaurants from Bucharest will take part in the festival. The restaurants will prepare a special menu and will signal their participation by posting stickers with the festival’s logo.

Distrigaz Sud becomes GDF SUEZ Energy Romania

Natural gas provider Distrigaz Sud, controlled by GDF SUEZ, will be rebranded into GDF SUEZ Energy Romania, the French utility group announced yesterday, quoted by Mediafax. GDF SUEZ operates on the local power market through the natural gas and service provider GDF SUEZ Energy Romania, the natural gas provider Distrigaz Sud Retele and the gas storage operators Amgaz and Depomures. The group reported an 11.7 pc sales increase for Q1 this year, up to EUR 25.56 bln, and a pretax profit increase by 14.7 pc, to EUR 5.3 bln.

Vodafone Romania to launch Mobile Insurance

Vodafone Romania launched yesterday the Vodafone Mobile Insurance offering the customers of services based on subscription, of the Vodafone Avantaj offer and of the Vodafone Home offer the opportunity to insure their mobile telephone or data modem in the case of theft or accidental deterioration, by paying a monthly tax of EUR 1.99, a press release sent to our paper announces. The insurance provides all Vodafone Romania customers, regardless of whether they are living in Romania or abroad, replacement of the phone or of the USB modem and the reimbursement of the sum for any unauthorized phone calls, depending on the selected level.

There are two available levels of insurance, Standard, which costs EUR 1.99 per month and Premium, with a monthly tax of EUR 2.99. The monthly tax will be included in the Vodafone bill.

Orange launches the content transfer service for mobile phones

Orange launches the first service of the Orange Care portfolio: the content transfer, including telephone numbers, messages, photographs, music and other multimedia data, from one mobile phone to another or to an USB-connectible memory stick, a press release sent to our paper announces.

The content transfer service is available to all mobile telephony users in Romania.

The content transfer from the memory of one mobile phone to the memory of another is priced at EUR 5 (VAT included) while the content transfer on a memory stick costs EUR 3 (VAT included). The service is compatible with any phone brand available in the Orange portfolio, and the content transfer operation is performed fast at all Orange stores. The service will be initially available in 50 Orange stores all over the country: afterwards, it will be expanded to all the stores.

Financial Control Guard to attract over RON 4 M

The Financial Control Guard attracted additional sums to the state budget, totalizing over RON 4 million, after several controls performed during May 18 – 24, 2009, according to a press release issued by the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), Agerpres reported.

The controls aimed to check the financial and tax discipline, trade laws, as well as the accuracy and legality of commercial operations. From the total sums attracted to the state budget, over RON 2 million were cashed. Moreover, goods worth RON 70,533 were seized. The Financial Control Guard held over 3,656 operative and unexpected controls that led to the issuing of over 3,309 control files. Of all the control files issued, 63 were sent to legal institutions, for prejudice totalizing RON 19.84 million.