Why To Invest in ROMANIA ?

Romania country profile

Romania is unique among the eastern European countries once dominated by the Soviet Union: Latin in culture, pro-Western, with an admirable record in inter-ethnic relations, it is intent on making the transition from communism to open-market economy.
In fact, Romania is now experiencing unprecedented levels of foreign direct investment. But how good are its long-term growth prospects.? And what is it like to do business in this rapidly changing country? In this interview, the U.S. Ambassador to Romania, James Rosapepe, offers an inside view of this economically vibrant nation
Romania remains something of a cipher to much of the world. Can you give us a brief overview of your impressions of its culture and its people—in short, the things that make it different from other Eastern European countries?
There are a number of things that differentiate Romania from other Eastern European countries: First, this is a Latin culture, with a romance language. It's therefore much more accessible to Americans.
Secondly, the language skills—a high percentage of Romanians speak English and other more accessible and common languages, such as French.
Third, it's a hospitable, open culture, not used to dominating other people—one reason why they have good relations with their neighbouring countries. They're proud of their culture and history but in a non-offensive way. I see similarities with Italians. (As you may know, I'm Italian-American.) After living here just a couple of weeks, I felt at home.
Fourth, this is an interesting crossroads, as two-thirds of the country was under Turkish rule for several centuries and one-third (Transylvania) was under the Austro-Hungarian rule.
Fifth, Romania has the largest ethnic minority of any country in Europe. (Excluding Switzerland, of course, which has no ethnic majority.) There are approximately 1.8 million Hungarians in a country of 23 million people. There are more Hungarians in Romania than Albanians in Yugoslavia.
And generally, they get along well with each other. Hungary did control Romania for quite awhile, so there are reasons why there might be conflict, but through a lot of effort, they've made things work. We conducted a public opinion survey last summer among ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Romanians asking them why they have got along so much better than people in Yugoslavia. They both responded "we're a democracy" and also that "we're more reasonable than Serbs and Albanians."
Sixth, Romania's size sets it apart. Geographically, it is as big as Oregon. Its population is greater than any U.S. state except California. It's twice as large as Yugoslavia, twice as large as Hungary, and almost three times the size of Bulgaria. It's the fourth-largest former communist country, behind Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. In fact, Romania represents approximately 40% of the population of south-eastern Europe.
And the final point is that Romania is very pro-American. In our public opinion surveys, which are conducted throughout the region, Romania shows up as being more pro-American than any other population in Eastern Europe. Romania is also pro-NATO and Western Europe. And they see little conflict between being pro-EU and pro-American.