Memorandum of Understanding on Economic Cooperation, signed between CCIB and Ankara Chamber of Industry

A memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation was signed by the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB) and the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) at the Turkey-Romania Economic and Investment Forum in Istanbul.

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES, CCIB negotiated with the partners of the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) a Framework Cooperation Agreement, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed at the Forum in Istanbul by Iuliu Stocklosa, President of the CCIB, and Aytac Muhittin Dincer, Member of the Board of Directors of the Ankara Chamber of Industry.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding took place under the high patronage of the two co-chairs in the Joint Romania-Turkey Joint Intergovernmental Economic Cooperation Commission, Fuat Oktay, Vice President of the Republic of Turkey and Sorin Mihai Grindeanu, Deputy Prime Minister, the Romanian Minister of Transport and Infrastructure.

The event was also attended by government delegations and business representatives from the two countries, including Virgil Popescu, Minister of Energy, Stefan Tinca, Romanian Ambassador to Turkey, Lucian-Ioan Rus, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Mihai Daraban, President of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"This is the 7th agreement signed by the CCIB with similar institutions in Turkey after previous agreements with the Istanbul, Ankara, Trabzon, Gaziantep and Iskenderun Chambers of Commerce, as well as the Eskisehir Chamber of Industry, to which is added the Cooperation Agreement concluded with the Association of Turkish Businessmen of Romania (TIAD)," reads the release.

The trend of increasing Romanian-Turkish trade in 2021 was maintained in January 2022 (latest data available), thus, on January 31, 2022, the total volume of bilateral trade was 802 million USD, of which exports worth 246 million USD and imports worth 556 million USD, with a balance of 310 million USD in Turkey's favor.

Compared to the same period in 2021, the volume of total trade increased by 33.7%, of which exports increased by 4.4% and imports by 52.6%.

At the end of January, Turkey ranked first among non-EU trading partners, surpassing China in total volume, being the main non-EU destination market for Romanian products and the second country of origin, after China, for products imported from outside the EU.

As of January 31, 2022, 16,842 companies with Turkish capital were registered in Romania, the value of the subscribed share capital being the equivalent of 890 million USD, accounting for 1.42% of the total capital subscribed by foreign investors. By the number of foreign capital companies registered in our country, Turkey ranks 3rd, after Italy and Germany, with a share of 7.1%, and according to the value of investment in foreign currency equivalent, it ranks 15th in the ranking by country of residence of investors in companies with foreign contributions.