LUCIAN BODE: The United Arab Emirates - our first commercial partner of the Gulf Cooperation Council

The United Arab Emirates (EAU) represent the first trade partner of the Gulf Cooperation Council Area (CCG) and the third in Africa and the Middle East, said Lucian Bode, the minister of the economy, trade and business environment, who stressed that "Romania is happy with the very dynamic evolution of the economic bilateral relations".

Last year, the total volume of the commercial exchanges between Romania and the Commercial Arab Emirates reached 530 million dollars, compared to 340 million dollars in 2010 and 290 million dollars in 2009.

Exports also followed an upward trend, with their value reaching 461 million dollars in 2011, up from 302 million dollars in 2010 and 241 million dollars in 2009.

Imports from the United Arab Emirates were a lot smaller than exports, even though they had a rather significant increase, from 38 million dollars to almost 70 million dollars, according to data provided to us by the Ministry of the Economy.

The exports consisted mostly of products of the machinery-making industry (engines and power transformers, industrial reinforcements, ball bearings - 63.2%), mineral products (14.5%), wood and wooden products (11.52 %), metals (6.3%), furniture (1%), textiles etc.

Imports consisted first and foremost of plastic materials and plastic products (accounting for 49.5%), organic chemical products (41.46%), metals (5.1%), machinery and electric devices (2.6%).

The diversification of the structure of commercial exchanges last year brought new Romanian products on the market of the Emirates, such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, leather products and electrical appliances, as well as new products from the Emirates to the domestic market, such as the chemical products.

"We think that Romania has an extremely high potential for the production and export of food products and, in this context, the companies of the Emirates can benefit by setting up food production facilities in Romania, which would then be profitably sold on the market of the Emirates, thus allowing them to meet the demand existing in the United Arab Emirates", the minister recently said.

According to him, Romania wants to further its relations with the United Arab Emirates, a decision which validates the geostrategic position of the UAE in the Gulf area and among the Arab countries: "We want to have companies in both countries pragmatically exploit this position among the Cooperation Council and in the region".

In this respect, Romania's promotional program for this year includes a series of participations in the international exhibitions organized in the United Arab Emirates, including the maintaining of the participation at the Exhibition Center of Sharjah, the participation at the MEFTEC (an information technology fair which is currently under way) and the participation in SMEM (an exhibition specializing in ship building, which will be held between November 27th - November 29th).

• The UAE - interested in our energy sector

In March last year, on the occasion of the Economic forum of Bucharest "Romania - the Gulf Cooperation Council", the businesspeople of the UAE received proposals for making investments in Romania. The Romanian Minister of the Economy of the time had official meetings with the countries in the Gulf, which allowed the debate of official bilateral issues of interest for the development of commercial exchanges and economic cooperation.

"On the occasion of the official visit of minister Ion Ariton in the United Arab Emirates, between November 19th-November 22nd, 2011, during the talks with the authorities of the Emirates, the proposals for UAE businessmen to invest in Romania were reiterated, by presenting several projects which were deemed as fitting for institutional investors", Mr. Bode said.

According to him, among other things, the projects concern first of all the Romanian energy sector. Two projects which have priority are the hydroelectric plant of Tarniţa, with an installed power of 1,000 MW and the Units 3 and 4 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Plant, with a total installed power of 1,500 MW.

As part of that visit, the Romanian authorities have proposed to the UAE a strategic partnership, - the "European Gateway Platform" initiative - which intends to tap Romania's competitive geographical placement, as an important production, assembly, trade and logistics center in the Balkans and the Black Sea region, by predominantly directing the flow of goods from the Orient to Europe, through the pan-European lanes no. 4, 7 and 9, meaning the use of the port of Constanţa and the Danube.

• In 2011, 240 companies with Arab capital were active in Romania

His Excellency Yacub Yousif Al Hosani, the ambassador of the UAE in Romania, last year said in an interview: "In the attempt to ensure an attractive environment for investors, we have taken successful steps towards ratifying several agreements for promoting and protecting investments and to avoid double taxation with many countries, including Romania. Thus, the Romanian state has signed commercial and economic agreements with several countries all over the world, based on which it created the legal foundations for the economic and trade cooperation. Romania is one of the partners with which we signed more than 15 years ago, the Agreement for the Promotion and Mutual Protection of Investments and the Agreement for Economic Cooperation. I would say that the commercial relations have evolved well last year, but there is still room for improvement".

According to his Excellency, last year, there were about 240 companies with Arab capital active in Romania. The most important business presence in the Emirates is DP-World Constanţa/SC Constanţa South Container Terminal SRL. Other Arab investments in Romania are in the real estate, pharma, construction materials, agriculture, tourism and transports sectors.

There is interest from the business sector in the Arab Emirates to invest in Romania, in the following sectors: air transport, tourism and services, financial and banking services, agriculture and infrastructure.