GABRIEL GHELMEGEANU, THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ROMANIAN CHINESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY: "The problems with the visas for Chinese citizens have gotten worse, under the new government"

• The law is good, but it is not implemented the way it should be

• We need a strategy for the development of the relations between Romania and China

• Romania may conclude an agreement with China on investments in agriculture and exports of pork meat

Visa-related issues, which Chinese citizens are encountering when they decide to come to Romania, have become worse lately, according to Gabriel Ghelmegeanu, the chairman of the Romanian Chinese Chamber Of Commerce And Industry (CCIRC).

He said: "Nothing has been done about the issue of visas for Chinese citizens by the new government; on the contrary, everything has gotten worse. The law is good, and if it were complied with, there would be no more such issues, but it is not, it is not being applied the way it is supposed to. The Chinese who come to Romania are put in a room and interrogated. They are being asked why they are coming to Romania, how many days they plan on staying, why they stay for that number of days, who they are meeting..."

Gabriel Ghelmegeanu said that we need a strategy of the government, to help the development of the relations between Romania and the People's Republic of China.

• Botănoiu: "We need to turn towards the markets that we have forgotten about"

In October this year, Romania and China may conclude an agreement concerning the investments in agriculture, which might be supported by the Chinese party and the reactivation of the Romanian exports of pork meat to the Chinese market.

Gabriel Ghelmegeanu said that Romania had an agreement concluded with China for the bilateral meat trade: "Romania had this agreement, and China most likely has its own regulations in that field, just like any other countries, which we need to comply with. Since we were no longer interested, we didn't go there to renew the agreement. At the time, the actions for the signing of that agreement took about 1-2 years. At the present time, if there is goodwill and if we go there well prepared, we could complete these steps quicker, if not, we are wasting time".

Daniel Botănoiu, secretary of state in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), said, quoted by Agerpres: "We do have export opportunities, but we should be careful to export products, rather than raw materials. The Chinese consume a lot of pork and chicken, their only requirement when it comes to these types of products is the traceability of the products to allow checking for epizootics".

"They have sent in a questionnaire which needs to be filled out by the Romanian Veterinarian Authority for pork meat exports. The Chinese also want Romania to increase the value of its honey exports to China, from 100,000 Euros to 500,000 Euros. They want that product because it is high-quality and we have proven reliable".

The representative of the MADR said that Romania needs to strengthen its exports of processed products with added value, especially to certain countries which were our regular partners 20 years ago. Daniel Botănoiu said: "We need to focus on all these markets which we have forgotten; we didn't lose them, because at the present time, global food consumption is increasing. It is time to look to these states, which are seeing economic growth and have the potential to buy finished products. I think that exports to the BRICS countries (ed. note: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which have an appetite for European products are welcome. (...) We are at an advanced stage of the talks and we hope we will reach an agreement with Turkey, this year, on exporting mutton. We have also notified the European Commission, that there is a trade barrier on those products".

• The authorities of the two countries talked about the Romanian irrigation system

The representatives of the Romanian government yesterday met with the Chinese authorities, and the talks at the reunion are intended to promote cooperation in the sector of water (more specifically the use of water for agricultural water, in the rural areas) and in the area of the preservation of water resources, according to a press release.

After the meeting with Zhai Haohui, former deputy minister of water in China and Huo Yuzhen, the ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Romania, Rovana Plumb, the Romanian minister of the environment and forests, said: "The main focus are the water resources and for that purpose we want to achieve an integrated management for them, especially since the impact of climate changes is a sensitive subject for Romania, as they lead to desertification and draught".

The two parties have also talked about the investment project in the hydrographical basin of the Danube, which are looking at restoring the Siret-Bărăgan Canal.

"Since 1986 an investment was made in the hydrographic basin of the Danube, of which only 50 km have been developed so far. We have a great need for an easily accessible and cheap source of irrigations in the area of the Bărăgan, an area with agricultural potential. We want to cooperate, to the extent that Chinese investors will be interested to develop and complete this investment, "said Rovana Plumb.

Gabriel Ghelmegeanu told us that the projects for the Siret-Bărăgan irrigation channel must be very well documented, and sustainable, in order to be accepted into the Chinese investment program, which has a budget of ten million Euros, allocated for the 16 countries in the CEE region. "The Chinese are very interested in the Romanian market and they have the money to invest, but they won't spend money on utopian projects", Mr. Ghelmegeanu also said.

The coordinator of the Chinese mission, mentioned that his country has greatly developed its system for the management of water resources, by implementing an intelligent irrigation system for the agricultural land located in areas affected by a lack of rain.

"We have provided the protection of the citizens over all the riverbanks located in China; this wasn't an easy task, for a population of 1.3 billion people, but with an adequate involvement, we succeeded", the former deputy minister of water in China said, who went on to say that, "thanks to the implementation of this irrigation system, over the last ten years, the grain output increased from one year to the next".

According to Daniel Botănoiu, China is interested in acquiring from Romania genetic breeding material for cattle, pork and chicken, honey, red wines, sheep wool and animal skins.

In October, the visit of a Chinese delegation is scheduled to take place, which will comprise high ranking officials who are in charge of the country's audits and inspections, in order to conclude an agreement concerning the future investments in Romania.