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Agriculture: Agriculture should be linchpin of Romania -Turkey economic partnership
Romania -Turkey cooperation, with emphasis on economic aspects, was the subject tackled at a meeting this Monday between chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Policy Petru Filip and a delegation of the Turkish Businessmen Association (TIAD). The Romanian official said that agriculture should be the linchpin of the two countries' economic partnership.
In his intervention, Turkish Ambassador Ömür Sölendil pointed out that Turkey - Romania relations have acquired a strategic dimension, and economic and commercial ties are a component of this excellent bilateral relationship.
''The amount of Romania - Turkey bilateral trade has exceeded the EUR 6 billion mark, which is encouraging but not enough, given the friendship and neighborhood relations that contain the necessary elements for helping boost these exchanges,' reads a release to Agerpres.
In turn, Petru Filip showed that agriculture should be at the center of the Romanian-Turkish economic partnership, given the great potential both countries have in this area. Thus, greenhouse agriculture appears as a highly promising activity in the future.
''Romania once had a large surface of greenhouses, of which just a small part has been preserved, which has driven us in today's situation when we are big consumers of products from import, not from our own production. Turkey is a large vegetable producer, but also a greenhouse manufacturer, and in view of Romania - Turkey economic relations this could be an interesting and important subject, especially for young people living in the countryside and who don't have much to expect from urban living. We must think of practical things,'' said Filip.
Senator Peter Filip also mentioned the subject of SMEs and tourism.
In his intervention, Sorin Dumitru, president of the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB), said that CCIB is best suited as partner for carrying out such plans.
''CCIB has an extremely successful experience with Turkey. We should lend more attention to the metal industry too,'' said Dumitriu.
CCIB is a founding member of the Danube Chambers of Commerce Association, a structure approved by Brussels for accessing European funds. Together with TIAD, this structure could organize a forum to present all the business opportunities in the Danube region.
Research is another area rich in cooperation opportunities, featuring many highly competitive areas where Turkish researchers could join inter-university partnerships, the release mentions.
''Turkey has an important agricultural sector, and Romania also has a considerable agricultural potential. In this context one could say that trade exchanges only poorly reflect possibilities,'' said Achim Irimescu, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, who added that this issue could be remedied by identifying solutions at governmental level at the meetings already scheduled between the ministers in charge of the two countries.
President of the Turkish Businessmen Association, Ömer Süsli, suggested at the same meeting that together, CCIB and TIAD should organize information meetings for the factors involved in agricultural activities.
''We could partner with businessmen in the sector, Turkey's farming exports are below its industrial exports. Let's organize a meeting between Turkish greenhouse farm producers and Romanian producers,' he said.
In the end, Petru Filip proposed that the debate be put down in a joint note for outlining a common road map for further talks. He mentioned that the date of the next session of talks would be established in agreement with the Turkish partners.