PM Boc: Italy, one of Romania's most important commercial partnersUpdated: 17-09-2009 |

Agerpres special correspondents Georgiana Tanasescu and Marius Fratila report: Italy is one of Romania's most important commercial partners and Romania is interested in boosting Italian investment on its territory, PM Boc said Wednesday after a meeting with his counterpart Silvio Berlusconi.
 
Boc pointed out there are over 27,000 Italian companies in Romania and over 230,000 Romanian companies in Italy. There is also an important Romanian community made up of about 1,200,000 people while over 800,000 Romanians are working with Italian companies.
 
"In other words, as many as 2,000,000 Romanians have a direct or indirect relation with Italy," Boc said, underlining the large number of flights connecting cities of the two countries.
 
"There are 370 weekly flights between the Romanian and Italian towns , the largest number of flights connecting two European countries. That's why we have to continue the good ties we have," Boc explained.
 
In his turn, PM Berlusconi said he hoped Romania would became Romania's most important commercial partner, as it currently ranked second in this respect. Italy comes first however, as regards the number of foreign companies in Romania.
 
Berlusconi underscored that the very good economic ties between the two countries must be boosted by the development , in Romania, of new projects conducted by Italian companies, and insisted on th energy cooperation. He gave the example of the large companies ENEL and Ansaldo, which are already present in Romania.
 
PM Boc is accompanied in Italy by Economy Minister Adriean Videanu. On Wednesday evening he will attend a working dinner with representatives of the Italian businessmen while on Thursday he will meet the head of the CONFININDUSTRIA employers' association, Emma Marcegaglia and with the president of the car maker Fiat, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
 
Agerpres