Romania-South Korea: a dynamic strategic partnership, the predominant economic component

By RBJ
In these days at the end of December 2022, the President of the Romanian Parliament, together with the Prime Minister of Romania, identified ways to boost the partnership between the two states.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu says on Thursday that he had extremely interesting visits and meetings with the management of large South Korean companies, such as Hanwha Aerospace and Hyundai Rotem, during his official visit to South Korea. We are interested in major projects alongside these companies with huge potential in key areas of the economy – transport, the defense industry, IT&C, Ciolacu adds.
“One of the priorities of our presence in South Korea, in such an important delegation, is to give a new dimension to the economic relations between the two countries. That is why today I had extremely interesting visits and meetings with the management of large South Korean companies, such as Hanwha Aerospace and Hyundai Rotem. We are interested in major projects alongside these companies with huge potential in key areas of the economy – transport, the defense industry, IT&C”, writes Marcel Ciolacu on Facebook.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies also points out that he also had important discussions in Busan with the members of the management of the port authority on the development and modernization of the port of Constanta, Romania, one of the most important on the Black Sea
“We want to learn from the expertise of Korean managers… Know-how is essential for the Port of Constanţa, – which has become a strategic point in the international grain trade amid the conflict in Ukraine – in order to transform it into a hub for trade between Europe and Asia. South Korean corporations have cutting-edge technologies and are willing to participate in large investment projects in Romania, and they have full support both from me and from the social-democratic ministers!”, says Ciolacu.
Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă had a meeting today in Seoul with his South Korean counterpart, Han Duck-soo, in the context of the official visit he is making to the Republic of Korea together with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, and with a government and parliamentary delegation.
“Consolidating our bilateral cooperation is all the more significant considering the geopolitical and economic context marked by multiple challenges, but also important opportunities. It is necessary to provide a new impetus to achieve the objectives of our Strategic Partnership, the only one that Romania has with an Asian country. We hope to celebrate next year 15 years of collaboration within the Strategic Partnership through the visit to Romania of my South Korean counterpart, Mr. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, and through new projects that will relaunch our cooperation in political, economic and sectoral”, said the Prime Minister of Romania.
An important component of the discussions concerned economic collaboration, in the context in which the volume of commercial exchanges exceeded one billion dollars in 2021. The Head of the Executive appreciated this encouraging signal and emphasized the potential for the development of the bilateral economic component. We support the growth of greenfield investments and are very interested in strengthening cooperation in the fields of green energy, digital technologies, as well as the links between SMEs in our countries, Prime Minister Ciucă added. “We are open to analyzing the possibilities of a tripartite cooperation Romania-Republic of Korea-USA in the field of nuclear energy and we encourage the participation of South Korean investors in projects such as that of small modular reactors (SMR) and in investments at Cernavodă”, said the first – Minister Ciucă.
Also, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă thanked his counterpart for the support provided by the Republic of Korea regarding Romania’s candidacy to the OECD and mentioned that our country will continue to count on this support.
The two high officials had an exchange of views on bilateral cooperation in the fields of education, defense, as well as on the management of the situation generated by Russian aggression in Ukraine, security in the region, cooperation between NATO and the Republic of Korea, on all relevant dimensions.
Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă is making an official visit to the Republic of Korea this week, together with a parliamentary delegation led by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, with the deputy prime minister and minister of transport Sorin Grindeanu, the minister of education, Ligia Deca, the minister of research, innovation and digitization, Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Economy, Florin Spătaru, Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, Minister of National Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, and General Manager of S.N Nuclearelectrica S.A., Cosmin Ghiță.