Public appearances

ROMANIAN – SLOVENE BUSINESS FORUM
Opening address by the President Milan Kucan
Official visit to Romania

Bucharest (Romania), 9 July 2002


Distinguished President of Romania, Mr Ion Iliescu, Ministers, esteemed members of the Romanian and Slovene business community,

President Iliescu and I spoke about the good relations between our two countries yesterday. Mutual visits and working meetings at various levels have already turned into a constant. Economic cooperation, particularly trade in goods, has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Nevertheless, we should not be satisfied with what we have achieved.

I see today's Business Forum as an opportunity to strengthen the existing business cooperation between Romanian and Slovene companies. I also see it as an opportunity to exchange new information about our companies and the economic and socio-political environments that Romanian and Slovene enterprises operate in.

In the eleven years of an independent and sovereign Slovenia, our economy successfully travelled an extremely demanding and dynamic journey. Today, Slovenia achieves 72% of the EU’s average GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity. In its negotiations with the European Union, Slovenia has provisionally closed 28 chapters and expects to complete these negotiations by the end of the year. Slovenia meets the Maastricht foreign debt and budget deficit criteria. It also enjoys a high credit rating of ‘A’, meaning it is a safe destination for foreign investors. The Slovenian stock exchange index is on the rise, primarily as a result of greater interest from foreign investors. On the other hand, Slovenian investments in transition countries and in the former Yugoslav states are also growing. A recent project of this kind here in Romania is the Pharma Tech investment by Lek, an internationally acclaimed Slovenian pharmaceutical company. Lek will provide leading edge products and a transfer of know-how, establishing international manufacturing standards and internationalising the company’s operations. It will also maintain the same number of jobs. Just yesterday we jointly poured the foundations for a new plant in Targu Mures, an investment worth over 30 million US dollars.

I believe that such forms of cooperation – not just increasing trade in goods – will also be pursued by other Romanian and Slovenian companies. I also believe that the economic policies of both our countries will provide support to these more demanding forms of cooperation. Several new agreements between our two countries were signed yesterday (Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation, Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Veterinary Medicine, Agreement on Cooperation in Quarantine and Plant Protection, as well as an Implementing Programme for Cooperation in Culture for the period 2002 – 2005). This autumn will see another meeting of the Joint Economic Commission as part of the Regional Business Meeting Point in Bled, Slovenia (round table Slovenia-Romania). Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase is also invited to attend the meeting as part of his official visit to Slovenia.

One could say that we have successfully paved the path of economic and political cooperation. If we succeed in extending this to strategic alliances in specific areas and projects between our economies and our states, then we shall turn this cooperation into shared success. Today's world is extremely competitive. Yet it also offers many opportunities. We should seize them together.


 

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