ForMin Melescanu: Economic relations with Austria solid, yet have untapped potential

Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Melescanu declared Wednesday, during his meeting with Federal Minister for Europe, Integration, Foreign Affairs of Republic of Austria, Karin Kneissel that economic relations with Austria are solid, and yet they have an untapped potential. 

"We have discussed about bilateral economic relations, which are solid, but also have a yet untapped potential, of a nature to stimulate from our side, too the economic exchanges' development. Austria remains the second largest foreign investor on the Romanian market and we are still interested in drawing new Austrian investment to Romania, given that our country offers opportunities in a wide range of industrial branches, but also an opportune legislative framework for the foreign companies. We have talked about the very good cooperation between our countries in the field of vocational education, especially in dual education, which is a necessary adaptation of Romania for the EU market," Melescanu specified at a joint press conference alongside Federal Minister Karin Kneissel. 

According to the Foreign Minister, the visit of the high ranking official from Vienna has a special symbolism in the context of 10 years since the launch of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, a Romanian-Austrian initiative, that "became a successful project" of the EU. 

He added that on November 1st Romania will take over the presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, and one of our country's objectives is increasing its visibility, by promoting projects that will prove the worth of this regional cooperation, to both eliminate development delays, as well as increase connectivity among countries. 

"Romania's Government continues to be politically dedicated to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and we thanked for Austria's support," Melescanu said. 

The Bucharest chief diplomat mentioned that during the discussions the topic of expanding the EU to the Balkan region was tackled, as a priority of the two countries, in the context of holding the presidency of the EU Council. 

Karin Kneissel stated that the EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a project that "ties" the two countries, bringing them "prosperity and development". She stated that during the talks there were also discussed certain topics, such as education and human rights, and in addition that "strengthening the rule of law is, also, an important discussion." 

Romania was and still is in the 21st century an important source of energy, both in the classic area of fossil fuels, as well as in renewable energy. The energy topic is very important and a significant factor in our discussions," she stressed.