Romanian President Invites Czech Cos To Invest In Romanian Agriculture, Rural Tourism

Romanian President Traian Basescu met Thursday in Prague with Czech businesspeople, whom he encouraged to invest in Romania’s agriculture and rural tourism, MEDIAFAX Czech Republic reported.

Basescu said the Romanian government has EUR54 billion until 2013 that can be invested in agriculture.

"This may be a challenge for you as well, a challenge for European business people to invest in Romania and gain access to this money,” Basescu told Czech businesspeople.


Basescu added Romania’s agriculture has a great potential that is not being exploited.

"Unfortunately, we import 70% percent of the products that are consumed in our households. We do not have our own technologies,” the president said, adding Romanian agriculture would be able to cover 80% of domestic demand if companies would decide to invest in technology.

"Not far from agriculture, we have the tourism sector with rural tourism. We have potential, but we often do not know how to attract tourists," Basescu said.

The Romanian president also spoke about the country’s economy, which he said is undergoing recession.

"We expect decrease of the gross domestic product at about 5.7%,” Basescu said, adding that, however, the country’s banking sector is solid and healthy, the government hasn’t bailed out banks and the country’s situation is due to fewer exports to Germany, the U.K., France and Spain.

Basescu also said Romania’s unemployment rate is nearing 5.6%.

Basescu is on a two-day official visit to Prague and met Wednesday with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the speaker of the Czech Senate, Přemysl Sobotka, and the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Miloslav Vlček, and members of the Romanian minority in the Czech Republic.

On Thursday, the Romanian president’s agenda includes talks with the Czech prime minister, Prague mayor Pavel Bém, a Romanian-Czech economic meeting and a visit to the new headquarters of Radio Free Europe.

Basescu said Wednesday morning, before leaving for the Czech Republic, that topics for discussion include bilateral cooperation of the two countries, the evaluation of the Czech presidency of the European Union, the situation in the Western Balkans and EU enlargement, the situation in the Republic of Moldova, the effects of the economic crisis in the EU and potential measures that should be taken at the next European Council.