Reporting: Mona Dobrescu*

Luring new foreign investment and expanding the existing trade ties are the top priorities of the Romanian Government, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has told officials of German companies operating in Romania in the areas of finance, commerce, industry and energy. He made these remarks at a recent meeting at Victoria Palace

Germany\'s ambassador in Romania, Mr. Roland Lohkamp and officials for the management of the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry have attended the meeting. Popescu has assured German investors of the Government\'s support in solving problems they face in Romania and encouraged them to continue investing in the country that has a stable and predictable business environment. In this regard, the Romanian leader mentioned the Government\'s intention to reduce the time needed for issuing environmental permits.

“We want to create an as attractive and friendly as possible business environment”, the Prime Minister has conveyed.

Germany was Romania\'s main foreign trade partner in 2007, with total commercial exchanges of 13.7 billion euros, or 17 percent of Romania\'s total foreign trade. Germany ranks third in terms of foreign capital invested in Romania, after Netherlands and Austria, with an overall investment volume totaling 1.92 billion euro. Last year, there were some 15,000 firms registered in Romania as running on German capital, with almost 60 percent of them operating in industry, 17 percent in commerce and 16 percent in services sector.

* Ms. Dobrescu is in charge of the Eastern European desk at Info Prod since July 2007.