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WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo welcomed at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace by President Iohannis
President Klaus Iohannis welcomed at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on Wednesday World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo, who praised Romania for its progress of late as a member of the European Union and as a consolidated market economy.
According to a Presidential Administration statement , this visit is part of a series of meetings to consolidate international economic cooperation within and through WTO.
At the beginning of the meeting, Azevedo commended Romania for its significant progress of late as a European Union member and as a consolidated market economy, according to the statement.
Among the topics discussed were the current global trends in the area of economic policies, as well as themes of the 7 — 8 July G20 meeting in Hamburg.
"Despite the fact that commercial policies are almost constantly subjected to protectionist temptations, the world economy's progress was highlighted precisely in the context of economic opportunities provided by free trade," the release says.
At the same time, President Iohannis appreciated the WTO contributions to the international economic cooperation, through the promotion of international trade liberalisation. "Moreover, it was highlighted the idea the process of liberalising commercial exchanges has brought benefits to the developed and developing countries alike, because of access to higher quality products, job creation, enhancing the flows of foreign direct investment, know-how transfers and innovations," the statement mentions.
According to the Presidential Administration, during the meeting it was shown that the benefits of free trade are so much more obvious as the economic politics will consistently relate to the principles of market economy, through the promotion of free trade not only on the international economic relations level, but also in relation to the national business environments.
Furthermore, the Romanian head of state mentioned that orientation toward competitiveness also requires enhanced flexibility, mainly in the labour market.
"In this respect, a profound rethinking of the education system is required in the development of a dynamic and innovating economy, meant to capitalise on the competitive edges that are available to us, and, in addition, to foreshadow prospective solutions for the economy of the future, based increasingly more on digitisation and technological innovation," the statement reads.
Also approached were the current challenges facing the European Union related to Brexit as well as those concerning policies under which the member states try to support the SME sector, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.