Access to Europe under threat
Construction offers the greatest opportunities for Chinese companies, says Liu Zengwen the Chinese Ambassador to Bucharest, but a major problem for his citizens is visas
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Romania and China have maintained a strong relationship which has continued from the Communist era to the present day focus on free trade and investment.
But this is under threat because Chinese citizens now witness increased difficulties in gaining visas for Romania. Meanwhile the local Chinese population has registered a significant drop in numbers, despite the massive worker shortfall in Romania.
“If the visa problem will not be solved soon it will have a negative influence on the development of our relations in all fields,” says the Chinese Ambassador to Bucharest Liu Zengwen.
As a member of the EU, Romania has imposed restrictions on the number of citizens coming from states outside the EU, especially China. Before 2007 about 15,000 Chinese were living in Romania. This has fallen to around 6,000 today, most of whom are engaged in small commerce.
Nevertheless Chinese investments in Romania have increased considerably in the last two years to a total of over 200 million Euro at the end of 2007, with 40 million Euro invested last year.
Although most Chinese businesses in Romania are small and medium-sized, the telecom sector is represented through ZTE and Huawei which have been present in this country for more than ten years. “The Chinese come here because the purchasing power is higher compared to Bulgaria, for example,” the Ambassador says.
For the future, the construction sector will offer more opportunities for Chinese companies in Romania. The company which built the ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympics, Beijing Urban Construction Engineering, has announced its presence in this country by forming a joint venture with mixed-interest company Niro Group in a 70 million Euro tower near Romexpo exhibition centre.
“An important condition for the success of Chinese businesspeople in Romania is to learn the local language which is difficult and this is why they prefer to form mixed companies with Romanians or Romanian companies,” the Ambassador says.
Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Romania has kept consistent ties. “When Beijing asked for assitance from its socialist brothers, the Romanian friends always responded with precious help,” says Zengwen.
At the beginning of 1970s when Romania experienced heavy flooding, Beijing sent five million Yen for the Romanians – the largest single donation from a country. “In 1976 when China was shaken by a strong earthquake of almost eight degrees on the Richter scale, Romania was there for China,” the Ambassador adds.
Last August President Basescu also chose to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, bucking the trend of many European leaders who boycotted the inaugural event due to China’s controversial treatment of separatist groups in Tibet.
After the devastating earthquake that hit China earlier this year, killing 70,000, with 18,000 still missing and 100 billion Euro in damages, President Basescu also called the Ambassador to express “his compassion with the Chinese people”, says Zengwen. The Romanian Government donated almost 5.4 million Euro and goods including tents. The Chinese dignitary says he was moved by the funds raised in Romania, especially from small children and the elderly, who donated their pocket money and pensions to the Chinese people.
“Romania’s contribution was one of the largest but it’s not about the money. It’s about the compassion which came strongly from the Romanian people and from those children who donated their monthly allowance,” says Zengwen.
Niro and Beijing Urban Construction
Engineering: residential tower planned
Beijing Urban Construction Engineering and the Romanian Niro Group have begun a joint-venture to start building a 70 million Euro tower on Blvd Expozitiei near Romexpo.
The 22-storey high building will include a four-star hotel of 120 rooms, around 143 apartments and three levels of underground parking, for a construction date of March 2009 and delivery in 2011.
The joint-venture is 51 per cent owned by the Chinese and 49 per cent by the Romanian company and will include both Chinese and Romanian workers in its construction.
“In the following two years we intend to focus on projects for private companies, after which we will take part in public tenders for infrastructure and road works,” says Dumitru Nicolae, president of Niro Investment Group.
The joint venture is also interested in projects in Europe outside of Romania.
Beijing Urban Construction Engineering is best known for building the ‘Bird’s Nest’ arena in Beijing which was the site of the track and field events at the recent Olympics. The company is also active in major road, underground train and airport construction.
Meanwhile Niro Investment Group is destroying its Europa market in Bucharest’s Fundeni-Colentina district, which is full of small Chinese smallholders. The company will reconstruct a new Chinatown on the site of the complex. This will include a shopping zone over 300,000 sqm and an exhibition space of 100,000 sqm, as well as a hotel, offices, 600 flats and a shopping mall in the style of the Orient.
Beijing Urban Construction Engineering & Niro Group
Joint-Chinese-Romanian construction and development venture
■ Project: 70 million Euro residential and hotel tower
■ Location: Blvd Expozitiei, north Bucharest
Eurosport DHS: seeing cycle growth by 15 per cent
Bicycle manufacturer Eurosport DHS has finished the construction of its five million Euro greenfield plant with three production facilities: bicycle assembly, rim production and frame painting in Deva, Hunedoara county.
This year the company expects to grow its sales in Romania by 15 per cent and an increase in exports by 30 per cent.
The company is also planning to increase the promotion of motorised products such as scooters and ATVs on the local market, where there is a large demand.
“From 1999, when DHS started its activity, until now, the Romanian bicycle market has undertaken a big development in quality and quantity,” says Niu Guanghui, president of Eurosport DHS. “We are glad to notice the increase of client orientation towards medium and high-quality bicycles and a decrease towards low-cost bicycles.”
However the cycling culture in Romania is far behind that of western Europe because, according to Guanghui, a major problem is the lack of infrastructure for bicycles, such as usable cycle lanes.
In some big cities, the authorities have started to assign special lanes for bicycles, but there is a long road ahead for bicycle fans to be able to circulate freely.
“In large European cities, because of traffic jams and the lack of parking places, many people replace the car with the bicycle,” says Guanghui. “In the city the bicycle is a cheaper, more environmentally friendly and faster way of transport than the car. In a few years, we will see this change also in Romania.”
Eurosport DHS
Bicycle makers and importers
of vehicles
■ Assembly plant Deva
■ Three distribution centres:Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Deva
■ Total investment: 15 million Euro
■ By end of 2008: three million Euro more
By Ana-Maria Nitoi and
Alexandra Pehlivan
