Romanian-Indian trade declines over 33pct Jan-May 2020

Romania's commercial exchanges with India were worth 201.4 million US dollars in the first five months of 2020, down 33.1% from the same period in 2019, with India in fourth place among Romania's Asian trading partners, according to a press statement released on Friday by the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB).

"As of May 31, 2020, the total value of Romanian-Indian trade was standing at 201.4 million US dollars, down 33.1% from the similar period of 2019, of which exports were worth 63.2 million US dollars (-40.4%), and imports of 138.2 million US dollars (-29.2%), with the developments in the COVID 19 pandemic both in the two countries and internationally having negatively influenced the bilateral trade flows. Among Romania's Asian trading partners, India ranks 4th in terms of total trade volume, after China, Korea and Japan, 4th in exports and 3rd in imports."

According to the statement CCIB Chairman Costica Mustata, had a meeting with India's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Romania Rahul Shrivastava, at the beginning of his term. The meeting was also attended by Anup Demta, head of the Embassy Chancellery, and Florentin Palade, Chairman of SC Delta Machine Bucharest (a CCIB member company).

In the first part of the meeting, Mustata spoke about the activity of CCIB, a representative organization for the Bucharest business community, with openness and international recognition, about the external relations strategy of CCIB, mentioning among the priorities economic and trade co-operation with India., as well as real possibilities for collaboration between the companies from the two countries.

He underlined the quality of the Romanian offer in the machine building industry, the energy industry, the field of industrial equipment and information technology, as well as the opportunities offered for attracting new Indian investment to Romania.

The ambassador expressed full openness to collaboration with CCIB to secure constant exchanges of business information, including in the field of investment, to the benefit of the two business communities.

"India's ambassador to Romania also said that the next step could be to organise sectoral meetings (information technology, industrial development projects in agriculture, infrastructure), with a strong B2B side," according to CCIB.