PM Boc and Prince Felipe praised the constant positive developments of the economic relations between Romania and Spain, their excellent bilateral cooperation in the field of labour, and exchanged opinions about the measures required to contain the effects of the ongoing economic crisis and about coordinating these measures at the level of the European Union, the Government’s Press Office reports in a press release.
Also tackled was the situation of Romanian workers in Spain and their future prospects. Strengthening business ties and the interest in boosting Spanish investment in Romania were also discussed at the meeting.
The number of commercial companies running on Spanish capital in Romania has tripled in the past three years, and the value of their invested capital increased four times.
Also discussed were strengthening bilateral economic relations in the areas of promoting renewable energy sources, development cooperation in infrastructures and decentralisation.
In the context of the next rotating Spanish presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2010, PM Boc and Prince Felipe talked about topical issues on the European agenda.
Trade between Romania and Spain was standing at 1,712.28 million euros as of December 31, 2007, with Spain contributing 2.34 percent to Romania’s total foreign trade, 678.3 million of which were Romanian exports, number 9 among the destinations of such exports, with 2.31 percent of the total, and 1,033.98 million euros were Spanish exports to Romania, number 12 among the destination of foreign imports to Romania.
The trade was 355.68 million euro disfavouring Romania.
As of January 31. 2008, Spain was ranked 11th among foreign capital investors in Romania, with 2.763 operational Romanian-Spanish joint ventures and 464.941 million euros worth of Spanish capital.
The main investment areas were infrastructure; the food industry; plastics processing; the wood industry; the iron and steel industry; the car component industry; the textile industry; the energy sector; the chemical industry and the real estate sector.