Syrian Minister of Economy and Trade Amer Hossni Lutfi said on Sunday his country and Romania enjoy vast areas and great opportunities in investment and economic cooperation, Xinhua quoted Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) as reporting.
Lufti made the remarks during the Syrian-Romanian Business Forum held on Sunday at Damascus Chamber of Commerce.
The Syrian-Romanian Joint Committee is working on coordinating, following up cooperation and putting forth new agreements and memos of understanding, Lutfi said.
He voiced the desire to create a maritime line to connect the Syrian-Romanian ports in order to facilitate goods transportation between the two countries, highlighting the need to re-establish the Syrian-Romanian Businessmen Council as soon as possible to help push forward trade and investment cooperation.
Costantin Nita, Romanian Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce and Business Environment, attended the forum heading a business delegation.
Nita expressed his country's desire to expand economic cooperation with Syria.
"The signing of Syrian-EU Association Agreement will open the door for achieving Syria and Romania's ambitions to raise the trade exchange to half a billion U.S. dollars in the years to come, " Nita was quoted by SANA as saying.
The businessmen attending the forum reviewed the trade and investment opportunities available in both countries and means of increasing trade exchange and overcoming the obstacles in bilateral economic cooperation, the report said.
The visiting Romanian minister also held talks with Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah al-Dardari and Minister of Finance Mohammad al-Hussein on Sunday.
During the talks, the two sides agreed on intensifying efforts to solve issues concerning bank guarantees, custom fees and facilitating the flow of goods and businessmen between the two countries, according to SANA.
In October 2008, Syria and Romania inked three agreements on investment encouragement and protection, avoiding double taxation and exempting diplomatic missions in both countries from value added tax.