* Chinese investors show themselves more and more interested in our country and they are waiting for the Romanian authorities to smooth their way to investments
Lyu Xinhua, President of Council for Promoting South-South Cooperation (CPSSC) and former deputy Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, announced on Monday in Bucharest, the interest of the Chinese investors to find investment opportunities in Romania, but he mentioned that many things have to be settled from our country’s side, especially regarding the infrastructure and the legislation.
“I am glad to be here, in Romania, to promote the interest of the Chinese investors to find business partners and investment opportunities. Romania and China always had a good and friendly relationship, but concerning the trades between the two countries, I can say that they are at a very low level compared to other countries having commercial relationships with China. I met the Secretary of State in the Economy Minister and I’ve drew his attention on some issues that can be improved in Romania in order to accelerate the process of attracting Chinese investments”, stated the Chinese official on the occasion of the International Production Capacity Cooperation Romania-China Forum held by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Bucharest, in cooperation with The Chamber of Commerce and industry of Romania.
Among the most important issues on which the Romanian authorities have to work, Lyu Xinhua have underlined the problems related to the infrastructure and the legislative difficulties which Chinese companies have to face.
“There are still many enough problems regarding visas, approvals and other mandatory documents that are pretty difficult to be obtained by the Chinese companies. Besides, regarding public tenders, one of the most important criteria to win a tender is to demonstrate the experience on the local market. Or, in such circumstances, it’s extremely difficult to attract new Chines companies. Although I’ve seen that there are many Chinese companies in Romania having solid and growing businesses on the local market. I am confident that the relationships between Romania and China will improve”, Lyu Xinhua added.
“Our main objective is to bring Chinese enterprises abroad for international production capacity cooperation”
CPSSC is a national social organization under the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is dedicated to serving Chinese enterprises by “building a bridge for South-South cooperation, shaping a platform for win-win benefits, and providing information and intellectual support”, as it is written in the organization’s presentation.
CPSSC was established in 2014.
“CPSSC is an NGO approved by the Chinese Government. Our individual members are newly retired senior diplomats. We have corporate members who are willing to go abroad for foreign investment. We have now 73 ambassadors and commercial councilors who have worked in developing countries and over 100 corporate members”, said Lyu Xinhua in Bucharest.
“Our main objective is to bring Chinese enterprises abroad for international production capacity cooperation. Starting from last year we have visited Africa, South East Asia, the Middle East and our neighboring countries like Kazakhstan and Russia. So this is our fifth overseas visit”, the Chairman of CPSSC also said at the economic forum.
Regarding the CPSSC objective, the Chinese official explained that this acts “as a go-between for companies and institutions in China and other developing countries, provide information, consultancy services and assistance, and commit to friendship building and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and other developing countries in the political, economic, cultural, educational, scientific and technological fields”.
“China advocates international production capacity cooperation because after decades of industrialization, China is already a major manufacturing country. Amongst the 500 major industrial products in the world, China produces over 220 of them, which ranks first in terms of output”, wished to mention Lyu Xinhua.
The Chinese delegation present in Bucharest at the forum, led by Lyu Xinhua, was formed by Vice Chairman Zhang Jinfeng, MFA Special Representative for 16+1 Cooperation Affairs Huo Yuzhen, Former Ambassador Liu Zengwen, Deputy Director of Membership Department Liu Hanming, Deputy Director of Research Departmen Wang Huagen and Deputy Director of Research Department Xiao Li.
Besides them, there were also present representatives of 17 companies with Chinese capital from various activity areas, from textiles to highways and railroads constructions, wanting to know the realities in Romania and to find possible opportunities for economic cooperation with our countries. The Chinese Ambassador in Bucharest, Xu Feihong, also attended to the Forum.
From Romania’s side, there were present the External Affairs Manager within the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR) Virgil Goaga, CCIR Vicepresident Aurelian Gogulescu, Secretary of State in the Economy Industry Vlad Vasiliu, and Cristina Cocirla, who presented to the Chinese representatives the benefits offered by Romania, as well as Romanian businessmen searching for cooperation opportunities.
Aurelian Gogulescu, CCIR Vicepresident: “We are trying to identify some major projects for Romania”
Within the event, the attendants have tried to identify the problems staying in front of this cooperation, in order to find the solutions in the shortest time, as Aurelian Gogulescu, CCIR Vicepresident and President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Prahova (CCIPH) stated.
“The economic trades between People’s Republic of China and Romania, at least at the level of the last year, were placed around the amount of EUR 3.4 billion, but Romania’s deficit in the bilateral trade is pretty high. Basically, the first step would be to try to balance as much as possible the commercial balance between our countries”, the Romanian official stated.
It is an issue to which we are trying to find a solution”, he added, mentioning that the Chinese partners “asked each time to us a series of products that can be exported from Romania”, and this is a situation from which our country should benefit; instead, we can find the way to make even more room to Chinese products in Romania, as he mentioned.
“There were a lot of talks on attracting Chinese investments in Romania, which actually, we didn’t see, and this is another purpose of our today meeting, to try to identify some major projects for Romania. The areas are various, such as agriculture, tourism, IT, green energy and so on”, Aurelian Gogulescu said. He gave an example from Prahova, this being the county he manages in this field; it’s about three important investments, an industrial park with Chinese capital, as well as the investment for production of cylinders in the printing industry, and a gulf club that became an important touristic attraction point.
Gogulescu also said that they’ve tried to attract Chinese investments also in the infrastructure field, a very sensitive field in our country, and that he continues to hope that this thing will happen.
“We are trying to attract Chinese investments so that Romania could become an entry gate for the Chinese production for European Union”, CCIR Vicepresident also stated.
