On May 18th, during his official and good-will visit to Romania, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), attended the opening ceremony of China-Romania Economic and Trade Forum, at which he delivered an important speech titled Strengthen Cooperation between Enterprises and Achieve Mutually Beneficial and Win-Win Results.

The opening ceremony of China-Romania Economic and Trade Forum was held in a meeting hall of the Parliament Palace. The national flags of China and Romania stood upright on the two sides of the podium. All the seats in the two-level meeting hall were occupied. At 11:30 local time, Wu Bangguo and Bogdan Olteanu, President of Romanian Chamber of Deputies, walked into the meeting hall. All the audience stood up and welcomed them with warm applause.

Wu delivered an importance speech, which was warmly applauded. Wu first highlighted the favorable conditions for the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. Firstly, the two countries enjoy a solid political relationship and a profound traditional friendship. The two countries have agreed to develop an all-round friendly and cooperative relationship. There is not any political obstacle hindering the bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Such solid political relationship will definitely advance the bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Secondly, the two countries have established some basis for the economic and trade cooperation. The trade between China and Romania started early. In recent years, the trade and investment cooperation develops rapidly, with areas of cooperation expanding. The information and communications, infrastructure, agriculture, and environmental protection have been identified as key areas of cooperation. Thirdly, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation enjoys tremendous potentials. The rapid growth of China provides all countries including Romania with a high-yielding destination for investment. China has formed a group of large enterprises and corporations that are competitive in the international market. As the Romanian economy recovers, there will be a huge demand for infrastructure construction and a huge task to adjust, optimize and upgrade the industries. Meanwhile, Romania is making final preparations for the accession into the European Union (EU). This opens new areas for the economic and trade cooperation between China and Romania and between China and EU.

Wu Bangguo pointed out that it is a common task of both Chinese and Romanian entrepreneurs to improve the quality and level of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Both countries are developing market-driven economy. Enterprises have become main players in the market and main sources of investment. An important subject for the improved quality and level of such cooperation is to promote the cooperation between Chinese and Romanian enterprises, especially the cooperation in some large-scale projects that have significant bearings on the overall cooperation between China and Romania. The participation of enterprises is a major source of vitality for such cooperation China hopes that the friends of Chinese and Romanian business communities could carry out in-depth discussions on this subject.

Wu stressed that the Chinese government encourages domestic competitive and well-reputed companies to make investment and do business in Romania and welcomes Romanian enterprises to make investment and do business in China. China hopes that the Joint Economic and Trade Committee of China and Romania could play a bigger role in handling major problems concerning industrial cooperation in a timely and coordinated manner so as to create better conditions and great facilitation for the cooperation between the enterprises and the large-scale project cooperation.

Wu's remarks won warm applause from time to time.

Olteanu said in his address that the Romanian parliament and government support the business communities in conducting in-depth discussions on strengthening the economic and trade cooperation. He hopes that such face-to-face talks and contacts would help the business communities to know more of each other, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and benefit the two peoples.

The Forum was co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Romania. Wu's entourage includes his wife Zhang Ruizhen and Vice Chairman Re Di of NPC the Standing Committee. There were more than 600 participants including officials and entrepreneurs attending the Forum.