PRESS INFORMATION
Rome Commercial and Economic Promotion Office and Confindustria Bari e Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT), with the support of the Consulate General of Romania in Bari, organized the “New Business Opportunities and Investments in Romania” Economic Forum on 10 May 2018, in Bari, Italy.
Lucretia Tănase, Consul General of Romania in Bari, and engineer Domenico De Bartolomeo, president of Confindustria Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani, opened the forum works and welcomed this initiative aimed at developing bilateral economic relations at regional level.
Horia Mintaş, Director of the Foreign Investment Department, presented the investment climate in Romania, emphasizing the economic performance, the 7% GDP increase in 2017 and the 6.1 increase forecast for 2018, pointing out the Romanian economy competitive advantages as an investment destination compared to other countries, as well as the ministry programs aimed at encouraging the establishment of companies in Romania. The programs and measures launched by the current government are aimed at improving the economic climate and supporting the development of companies, any firm registered in Romania can benefit from, including those with Italian capital.
Norina Boru, economic adviser within the Romanian Economic and Commercial Promotion Office in Rome, recalled the excellent level of bilateral trade that exceeded 14.6 billion Euros in 2017 and presented the methodology, taxation and existing facilities for Italian companies interested in investing in Romania.
The Romanian Ambassador to the Republic of Italy, George Bologan, has sent a message of appreciation with regard to this initiative, stressing the importance of the economic dimension in the Romania and Italy bilateral relations, underlining the fact that Romania has become one of the safest business destinations in the world.
More than 70 representatives of Italian companies in the Puglia region and neighboring regions, active in the fields of industrial production (production of furniture, floors, gastronomic agrifood), civil engineering, banking, agriculture and agrifood production, IT & C, tax and legal consultancy, architecture, interested in investing in Romania, representatives of large Italian groups already present in Romania (Banca Intesa Sanpaolo), or Romanian groups from Italy, such as Banca Transilvania.
Vittorio Colangiuli, Director of Confindustria Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani, also participated.
Background information
According to Ministry for Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship data, it is estimated that the 2017 total bilateral trade volume will exceed 14.6 billion Euros, the highest value recorded in the last ten years.
Italy is the second trading partner of Romania, after Germany. The most developed economic sectors in the Puglia region are: mechanical, chemical, pharmaceutical and IT.
On January 31, 2018, the bilateral trade with Italy amounted at 1.1 billion Euros (up 11.09% over the same period of 2017), of which EUR 583.39 million (an increase of 12.36%) exports, and imports of EUR 528.50 million (up 9.71%), the share in Romania’s total trade being 9.57% (2nd in the top of the partner countries).
The presence of many Romanian communities in Italy (1,168,000 Romanian citizens registered in Italy as at January 1, 2016, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics), a growing number of companies registered in Italy by Romanian citizens (over 24,000 capital companies and partnerships, and more than 47,800 individual enterprises) and a large Italian business community in Romania (more than 45,000 companies as at April 30, 2017 according to the Trade Registry National Office, of which more than 23,000 assets) give this relationship a very social and economic dimension.