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Luxembourg and Romania sign new agreement
Luxembourg and Romania have signed a new executive programme aimed at boosting trade between the two countries in the areas of culture, education, science and sports, wort.lu reads.
The document was signed during the State visit of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to Luxembourg this week.
It builds on an existing cultural agreement between the two countries, which have forged strong ties in recent years with the renovation of a historic house in Sibiu by the Grand Duchy, among other things.
The programme will run from 2016 to 2021 and should serve as a basis for implementing projects agreed by the respective administrations.
On Tuesday - the second day of his state visit to Luxembourg - President Klaus Iohannis promoted business opportunities in Romania at an event hosted by the Duchy's Chamber of Commerce, stressing that Romania's goal is to advance to an emerging market status.
"The presence of Luxembourg companies is welcome in Romania, because our present and future cooperation will result in major benefits for both countries. There are good business opportunities in Romania, as our country benefits by a good macroeconomic framework, with an economic growth forecast over four per cent in 2016, one of the highest rates of economic growth in the European Union - except, perhaps, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, who has five percent. Also, the public debt level is below 40pct of the GDP, one of the lowest in the EU," the President said.
He emphasized the attractiveness of Romania's capital market, which is growing in terms of capitalization. "Also, it meets the necessary criteria to be promoted to the status of emerging market. This goal will surely be reached in the coming years. An increasingly flexible labour market adds to it. Moreover, Romania promotes the business milieu's suggestions for the creation of a dual education system, which should produce more professional skills to cover the economy's needs," he said
Iohannis also pointed out Romania's leading position in Internet speed in the EU, with broadband access ranked second, and the competitiveness of the labour force.
"More than 25pct of Romania's graduates will have a technical specialization, and another quarter a specialization in economy and business. We have 7,000 IT&C graduates every year, adding to a total of 90,000, with forecasts of over 100,000 by 2018; 90pct of Romanian students have a command of English, 26pct - of French, 17pct - of Spanish, and only 8pct of German. All these strong points, added to our monetary and financial stability, are a guarantee for investors that Romania is an excellent target for long-term investments. This is illustrated by the recent evolution of foreign direct investments, which had a significant advance of approximately 17pct in 2015. It should be noted that half of these investments were of greenfield type," he detailed.