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United Arab Emirates Business Forum organized în Bucharest
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sultan Al Jaber signed on Tuesday in Bucharest, the memorandum of understanding regarding the setting up of a cooperation committee between the two countries, a body that will regularly meet every two years.
"Throughout time, the relations between Romania and the United Arab Emirates have formed a strong and mutually beneficial partnership and the collaboration between our states has opened up in the most diverse domains. The United Arab Emirates are Romania's main economic partners ion the Gulf region and the third in the Arab world," Melescanu stated at a Romania - the United Arab Emirates Business Forum.
According to him, in 2017, bilateral trade reached 366 million US dollars and Romanian imports to the United Arab Emirates went up 39 percent, to 53 million dollars.
The minister showed that the two parties have identified, during Tuesday's discussions, the sectors of interest for Romania: commerce, infrastructure, energy, industry, agriculture, education, culture, innovation and research.
In his turn, the UAE Foreign Affairs Minister, Sultan Al Jaber affirmed during the conference, that it is high time the relations between the two countries moved on to the next level.
"We want to extend exports to Romania, we want to capitalise on more opportunities that we see here, for an enhanced mutual interest, to both parties' benefit. Romanian and the UAE business people should explore the two countries' business benefits," the high official said.
In his turn, the Chair of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mihai Daraban, present at the event, stated that there are solid trade exchanges between the two parties.
"We have 74 economic agents with capital from the United Emirates with a 24 million euro subscribed capital. We hope that in the future we will have more airlines, we are looking forward to it. We continue to be open to dialogue," Daraban said.
During the first session of the Joint Committee of Cooperation between Romania and the United Arab Emirates, held on Tuesday, at the House of Parliament, State Minister of UAE Sultan Bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber pointed out that the growth of bilateral exchanges reached in 2016 well over 570 million dollars.
"The year in which there were the most commercial exchanges was in 2014, and that is why we believe that we need to do more in order to consolidate the level of commercial exchanges. We wish that the Romanian side capitalize on the infrastructure and all the opportunities that the United Arab Emirates presents, in order to promote Romanian products. The Emirates wish to develop the level of investments with Romania and in the foodstuff security sector, logistics, as well as agriculture. Also, we consider that the UAE as well can become a gate for Romanian products in Asia and other destinations, and Romania can be a gate for the UAE products in Europe. I would like to refer, mainly, to the investment concerning the Constanta Port and also the start of a agricultural hub in Romania, which are in accordance with the strategic visit of the Emirates," he mentioned.
Bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber also mentioned the importance of a collaboration between sectors such as: military industry, infrastructure, energy, agriculture and tourism.
"We wish, through Romania, to find gateways towards the European market, through joint projects, to capitalize on the Romanian infrastructure as a point where we can go from promoting our products. Also, the military industry is at the top of our priorities. There is, in the UAE, a number of institutions specialized in this industry, which have high chances of making partnerships in this field as well. Concerning equipment and machinery for infrastructure or for energy and renewable energy, we are also very interested. Concerning agriculture, there is a special interest in the Emirates when it comes to food security. We see in Romania a investing opportunity in the real estate market and tourism market and we would like to strengthen the talks on these matters, in order to reach a sound partnership," he mentioned.