At the beginning of the meeting, the Romanian Minister appreciated the very good dynamics of bilateral relations, a press release issued by the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (MEAT) informs. He underlined the numerous opportunities for the development of these relations, especially in areas such as tourism, economy or defence industry.
Ambassador Massimo Baggi brought up to the discussion the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, which aims to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities between the development regions of the beneficiary countries of the European Union.
He also reiterated that in 2022 the bilateral Framework Agreement on the operationalisation of the second Swiss financial contribution to the EU was signed, through which Romania receives support for projects in areas such as research and innovation, funding for microenterprises and SMEs, or environmental protection, amounting to 221.5 million Swiss francs.
The Swiss Ambassador underlined that in order to ensure a better presence of Swiss investors in Romania, efforts should be made to make bilateral chambers of commerce function more efficiently, and he pledged to make a substantial effort to this end, also counting on the support of this ministry.
Minister Ștefan-Radu Oprea presented the strategic importance of Romania in the future reconstruction process of Ukraine, given that Romania has demonstrated its efficiency in connecting Ukraine with relevant partners by ensuring the transport route of Ukrainian grains through its ports. Moreover, he mentioned that Romania has made investments in port and rail infrastructure connecting with Ukraine's infrastructure, thus, proving it has the ability to become a logistics hub in the reconstruction process.
The Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism added that Romania is in a very good position in the process of implementing the Green Deal environmental pact in the EU, even though this has proved to be a real challenge for the Member States. The Romanian official also mentioned that among the successful programmes to support small and medium-sized enterprises run by the Romanian Government is the Start-Up Nation programme, which was intended to support the revival of entrepreneurship in Romania, a fact that is categorically demonstrated by the statistics published following the annual evaluations.
Romanian-Swiss relations are based on substantial bilateral cooperation, especially in the economic field. According to data from the National Trade Register Office, there are over 3,000 companies with Swiss capital operating in Romania. By value of investment in foreign currency equivalent, Switzerland ranks 10th in the ranking by country of residence of investors in companies with foreign participation.
