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Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos started four-day visit to U.S.
Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos begins on Sunday a four-day working visit to the United States; he will meet Vice President Joe Biden, other American officials and businesspersons, and members of the Romanian community of Washington.
"I envisaged this visit to build upon the sound relation developed over the past years between Romania and the United States. Starting from the strategic partnership we have with the U.S. and [from] this positive experience in security and defence, from this mutual trust between Romania and the United States built over these years, we should progress also with a more substantial economic component. (...) The main goal of this visit concerns the cooperation in the economic field, and of course in other fields where we can continue developing this strategic partnership," Ciolos said in a TV interview on Thursday night.
The premier explained that during the meetings he will have with American officials — Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack — and with several businesspeople he intends to present Romania's economic potential and to encourage American investors to come to Romania.
The prime minister added that his agenda will include a visit to the Ford Company in Detroit, to encourage the continuation of this automaker's investments in Romania.
"In the past months we have unblocked certain issues that were hampering the decision by the Ford Company to continue investments in Craiova. This decision was made, but I think that around this Craiova investment project more investments could be developed with suppliers of the Ford Company coming from the United States, and partnerships with Romanian companies, too," added Ciolos.
The prime minister is accompanied in America by Foreign Affairs Minister Lazar Comanescu, Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu, by the head of his Chancellery Dragos Tudorache, and by state secretary Manuel Costescu of the Government's Department for Infrastructure Projects and Foreign Investment.