Romania could become Europe"s gateway for Asian goods

Logistics experts yesterday attended a seminar, to debate the opportunities for increasing Romania"s competitiveness in Europe and to turn our country into a "gateway" into Eastern Europe for the goods coming from Asia, by way of the Constanţa port.

Even though several proposals intended to improve the role of Romania"s corridors were made, the emphasis was on attracting foreign companies interested in running high value activities like research and development in Romania, which could help grow the country"s GDP, help generate new jobs as well as additional tax revenues.

"Trade always follows the path of least resistance and goes to where there are the least number of hurdles, and Romania has fundamental competitive advantages which, together with the measures which have already been implemented with other states in the European Union could provide it with the opportunity to turn into an easy gateway to Europe", said Robin Marten, the president of "European Gateways Platform" and general manager of "Archicom".

Peter de Ruiter, head of the Legal and Tax Consulting Department of "PriceWaterhouseCoopers" Romania and Chairman of the Romanian-Dutch Chamber of Commerce and Industry said: "Even though the infrastructure industry is an important factor in turning Romania into a logistic center for Central and Eastern Europe, it can"t by itself attract investments in the sector. It also needs a stable and predictable business environment, as well as to implement of some key tax-measures which could turn the country"s potential into a competitive advantage for turning it into a preferred destination for foreign investments".

The seminar was organized by the "European Gateways Platform", the Romanian-Dutch Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Dutch Embassy in Bucharest, the "Dutch-Romanian Network", and "Archicom" SRL.