Kazakhstan, Astana, 27 August/ Trend , corr K. Konirova/ The Prime Minister of Romania Kelin Popescu Teruchanu will pay an official visit to Astana on 9 to 10 September, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to Kazakhstan Emil Rapcha said in his interview with Trend . The visit will take place at the invitation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. In his interview the Romanian diplomat shared his views and plans on prospects of cooperation between Romania and Kazakhstan.
Question: Mr. Ambassador, while submitting your letters of credence to President of Kazakhstan you said that there is a turning point in cooperation between Romania and Kazakhstan taking into consideration purchase by Kazakhstan serious assets in your country that is assets of Rompertrol oil concern.
Answer: Yes, I think the purchase of assets of the Romanian company paved a way for the development of our cooperation. It is very important and interesting project for both parties. Kazakhstan not only invests in Romania, but at the same time obtains opportunity to work within the framework of EU. In other words, the current Romania-Kazakhstan relations are a striking example of mutual relation of Kazakhstan with EU.
Romania, who was admitted to EU two years ago, can be not only partner of Kazakhstan, but also a good friend in establishing cooperation with EU. Romania can give Kazakhstan what it does not have and instead it can get what it lacks. Concerning cooperation in oil and gas sphere, the mutual benefit is obvious.
Romania is the first oil extracting country in the world who accomplished it in 1857. We have a big experience in oil production and refining and our specialists share it with their counterparts. On the other hand, now we do not have much oil, but still we produce several millions of tons a year. It covers 70% to 80% of domestic demand. We import the remaining part of the demand from Kazakhstan as well. This is the same case with natural gas.
Moreover, our cooperation opens new opportunities to use transit potential of Romania. While submitting my credentials, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that Kazakhstan is interested in using potential of Romania in the sphere of transit and refining of energy carriers and establishment of transport corridors connecting Central Asia with Europe.
Question: What significant changes have taken place for the first one hundred days of your work in Kazakhstan?
Answer: I want to continue the topic of breakthrough in mutual relations. We have established contacts in both politics and economy, and it became a good ground to implement new steps.
At the moment of my arrival to Kazakhstan, a new simplified procedure of granting visa to the Romanian citizens was adopted in Bucharest. The visa is opened in an hour once all necessary documents are submitted.
The consulate department has granted over 200 visas to citizens of Kazakhstan for the three months of my work. A total of 75 visas were granted for the last month. This is very good indicator compared to previous years.
Though these are only business trips, I hope that the businessmen of Kazakhstan will discover beauties of our country and will visit Romania as a tourist. We have very good resorts in the Black Sea where the prices are rather low than in Italy or Turkey.
Question: On 13 April 2007 the European Parliament approved Romania and Bulgaria's admission to the European Union. Two years have past since then, are there any results?
Answer: One can not expect rapid changes. Democratization of the country and revival of economy is a constant and continuous process. The situation in Romania is improving day by day.
Recently, there has been rise in the economy and GDP has increased by 4.5% to 5.3% annually. This was the highest indicator for the East Europe.
According to Statistics Agency of Romania, the volume of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Romania reached $757.3mln in 2007. There are 14 joint ventures in Romania involved in the trade of furniture, wear, shoes and medicaments.
The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]