NICOLAE VASILESCU OF THE Romanian CHINESE HOUSE The EU is discretely telling its member states: "Stay away from China!"

The European Union tacitly advises the member states to keep its economic relationships with China to a minimum, according to Nicolae Vasilescu, the president of the Romanian-Chinese House.

He said the following in an interview: "One of the problems which Chinese investors are facing, politically speaking, is the tacit recommendation made at cocktail parties and by the governments of the EU, which basically says < let's not get too chummy with China, let's us cooperate among ourselves instead >. Some countries heed that more, others less. We chose to heed that to the letter".

Mr. Vasilescu claims that the Romanian authorities don't pay any attention to the businesspeople who come to develop businesses here: "The president of a very large company which manufactures cars in China came to Romania, stayed at a hotel in Bucharest for almost a week, waiting to be received by someone in the government, but it was all for nothing. Nobody from the government received these investors, who subsequently left for Bulgaria, where they were received by the Bulgarian Prime Minister and the Bulgarian president, and now, just 60 km from the border with Romania, there is a huge investment, which has generated 3,000 jobs. We couldn't even get them in for a talk".

Getting a visa is another hurdle which lies in the path of investors interested in developing their business in Romania, Nicolae Vasilescu said. According to him, whereas last year, the Romanian state issued 11,000 visas for Chinese citizens, Hungary issued 114,000 visas: "This means that the Hungarians are very permissive when it comes to the Chinese who want to come and invest in their country. Our visa policy is very restrictive. Sure, there are < recommendations > in this regard at the EU level, since we are a state which wants to join the Schengen area. Naturally, our borders need to be very well secured, but not even the Chinese who have a Schengen visa enter Romania".

"They are required to get a Romanian visa, which is absurd, considering they have a Schengen visa in their pocket".

The president of the Romanian-Chinese House says that the documents presented by the Romanian party to the potential investors do not include the essential information concerning the projects which they propose: "We are not good at selling ourselves, at presenting our intentions. We bring all kinds of colored papers to the meetings, with investments in highways, ports, bridges, etc, but the Chinese just want to see the last page, which, according to them, needs to specify how much that investment would cost and how they would get their money back. We don't have that page, we never tell the ones who come in to invest < give us 200 million and this is how you'll recoup it >".

The interest of Chinese companies in investing in Romania is increasing, but for now we are at a tentative stage, according to Mr. Vasilescu. He said that there is a significant surplus of cash-flow on the Chinese market, which the countries which are going through a crisis need to rely on, "and the smartest European countries are taking the actions needed to benefit from this cash flow".

In his opinion, China could become a viable alternative for the financing of European projects.