De Castro also attended to a business seminar in Bucharest where he announced that Italy intended to forge a strong alliance with Romania. “We are interested in building a strong alliance between Romania and Italy. We have significant common interests in promoting the Mediterranean agriculture and in jointly counterbalancing the interests of northern European countries in Brussels structures,” the Italian Minister stated, quoted by Mediafax. He explained that investments in the Romanian farming sector primarily focused on grain crops, and the main area of interest is North-Western Romania. De Castro estimated that the number of companies running on Italian capital which will invest in Romania will continue to increase.
Officials for the association of Italian entrepreneurs, Unimpresa, stated that Italian companies and business people choose to invest in Romania because the local market has a remarkable potential, while also facilitating access to other markets in the region, such as Russia or Ukraine. Unimpresa Vice-President Federico Radice Fossati emphasised in the meeting with the Italian Minister that Romania’s advantages include the use of Danube river transport and the low labor costs. According to Unimpresa data, over 1 000 Italian companies operate in the Romanian agriculture sector, 88 in forestry, nine in aquaculture and several hundred companies in the farm product processing industry.
“Italy has been a traditional partner of Romania, and the proof in this respect is that Italy ranks fifth both in terms of foreign investment volume, with €788.3 million ($1.063 billion) by July 31, 2006, and in terms of the number of companies with Italian capital – 20,346,” CCIR Vice-President Sorin Dimitriu stated in the same seminar. However, Ambassador of Italy to Bucharest Daniele Mancini pointed out that after the first months since the EU accession, delays have been reported in Romania in terms of the structural fund management. “There is enough time to recover these delays, but Romanian authorities must pay attention to the alarm signals of the deadlines they must meet,” Mancini said. On the other hand, Romanian producers accused authorities of failing to grant adequate support to foreign investments. (portalino.it)
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