Publicat pe 15/03/2017

Klagenfurt, Austria, March 15^th: The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), Mr. Mihai Daraban had on Wednesday, March 15^th, 2017, a working meeting with the President of the Economic Chamber Carinthia, Austria, Mr. Jürgen Mandl. Discussions centered on opportunities to increase trade between Romania and Austria.

The two presidents talked about the Romania’s great energy potential and also about the development of transport infrastructure on the Danube River and the possibilities to develop joint projects to attract EU investment in this sector. The President of CCIR insisted on the importance of the Danube region and the role played by Romania as a “transit area waterways for countries that have no direct access to the Black Sea”, expressing the intention to attract national and international partners to develop projects funded: “The EU Danube Region Strategy states that the development and the linking of the Danube corridors are essential to generate economic growth in European countries”, said Mr. Mihai Daraban.

At the same time, representatives of the two chambers discussed over exchanging experiences and know-how in terms of the chambers of commerce, regarding the support of the business environment and the development of dual education as well. Mr. Daraban stressed that the economic relations between Romania and Austria is very good, but trade value may be improved through the joint organization of forums, seminars, fairs and exhibitions in economics to facilitate B2B meetings between business environment of two countries. In this sense, Romexpo Exhibition Centre was brought into discussion, the most important player in the fairs and exhibitions. Romexpo’ expansion project was also presented on this occasion.

Background information

In November 2016, the Romania-Austria bilateral trade had a total value of 3.48333 billion Euro, with an export level of 1.27218 billion Euro, while the level of imports was 2.21115 billion Euro. In January 2017, according to NTC, in Romania were 7207 companies with Austrian capital with a total subscribed capital of 4.9 billion. Austrian investments in Romania total direct on December, 31^st, 2015 was Euro 9.1 billion, and the share of total foreign direct investment in Romania is 14.2%, according to BNR.

The most important impulses for economic activity in Austria were driven by economic recovery globally and, more than anything, the robust growth recorded by Germany, Austria’s main trading partner. Foreign trade has been shown to be the main factor in the support of growth.