Romania, an overview - Economic profile

The Flag  of Romania

With a population of 22 million, Romania is Central Europe’s second largest market. Romania boasts several real advantages:

·        an excellent location at the crossroads of the main trade routes between western Europe and Asia, between South Europe (the Mediterranean) and northern Europe;

·        important river and sea navigation facilities  (Constanta is the biggest port on the Black Sea; proximity to the Danube – Rhine – Main canal connecting the Black Sea to the North Sea);

·        skilled labour, including highly trained specialists in the fields of technology, IT and engineering;

·        plenty of natural resources (oil, gas etc.) and vast fertile croplands;

·        a huge tourism potential;

·        diversified industrial structure;

·        legislation favouring foreign investment, based on free and nondiscriminatory access to the market.

The flag of Romania is a tricolor: red, yellow and blue. It has not undergone major changes in the course of history. Only the distribution of the colors (proportion and position) changed to a certain extent, being made equal after the Revolution of 1848 when, influenced by the French revolutionary spirit, many states in Europe adopted the standardized three-color banner as their national flag.

The flag of Romania has the colors placed vertically as follows: blue (hoist), yellow (in the middle) and red (fly). The blue is cobalt, the yellow – chrome, and the red – vermillion.

In 1990 Romania undertook an economic reform process that accompanied and complemented rapprochement or, in certain cases, integration in international institutions and organizations – the European Economic Community (which became the European Union / EU) and NATO, but then also the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization / WTO (of which Romania is a founding member) or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Foreign trade grew sensibly in point of both quality and quantity. The value of Romania’s trade exchanges has grown significantly, notably in recent years, when annual growth rates higher than 10% have been recorded. 2008 saw a peak in foreign trade which aggregated approx. EUR 90 billion (of which approx. 34 billion in exports). Romania’s main trade partners in the last decade have been Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Hungary, the Netherlands, the UK, and Austria.

In point of quality, the structure of commercial exchanges has been marked by major changes, Romania exporting more and more value-added products and services, that mirroring the economic restructuring, the capacity of the national economy to supply goods and services and a better utilization of facilities of access to foreign markets. Currently, the EU accounts for over 70% of Romania’s foreign trade, which indicates the level of economic integration in the European single market.

Romania’s macroeconomic prospects have visibly improved of late, on the backdrop of external demand, even though unemployment-related problems are likely to persist.

The Romanian Government will further work to fulfill the convergence criteria and observe the terms of the Stability and Growth Pact, as well as to ensure long-term stability of the exchange rate, with a view to switching to the Euro.

Reforms are to be operated at a fast pace, with emphasis on decentralizing the public administration, mobilizing public funds and strengthening the administrative capacity of generating projects to better absorb European funds, and financing priority projects in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, education, health care, energy, environment, and creating new business opportunities for investors.

Romania’s strategic priorities for the next period are to develop the infrastructure, to ensure energy security  and supply from alternative sources, modernize agriculture, enhance the quality of education and health care services

The Romanian-Swedish relations are very good, based on close cooperation in areas of common interest.

Sweden has constantly supported, at all levels of political leadership (Government, Parliament), Romania's objective of joining the EU in 2007.

Sweden was the first Scandinavian country to ratify the Treaty of Accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU.

It has also liberalized its labour market for Romanian citizens, starting with 1 January 2007.

Economic relations Sweden - Romania

1. Development of bilateral trade relations

As of December 31^st, 2012, the bilateral trade exchanges amounted to Euro 675,14 million, a slight 1,70% decrease compared to 2011.

Out of the total, the Romanian exports to Sweden reached Euro 390,99 million (9,73% increase compared to 2011) and the imports from Sweden amounted to Euro 284,15 million (14,01% decrease compared to 2011).

The trade balance has seen a surplus of Euro 106,84 million in favor of Romania.

Sweden ranks 22^nd among the countries importing Romanian products (0.87% of total Romanian exports) and 28^th among the countries exporting to Romania (0.52% of total Romanian imports).

2. Swedish investments in Romania

According to data from the Romanian Trade Register, as of December 31^st , 2012 there were 1,278 companies with Swedish participation to the capital registered in Romania. The total investment amounts to Euro 218,65 million. Sweden ranks 21^st among the countries with foreign direct investments (FDI) in Romania.

Main economic sectors where foreign Swedish investments were registered: industry (mainly automotive, furniture, textile, glass and chemical industry), transportation, retail and professional services.

Main investors include: Autoliv, Alfa Laval, Assa-Abloy, ABB, Atlas Copco, Ericsson, Electrolux, East Capital, H&M, IKEA, Kemira Kemi, Lindab, Volvo.

http://stockholm.mae.ro/en/romania

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