French investments 30% up

The level of French investment in Romania has gone up nearly 30% in 2003. France is Romania’s third commercial partner, after Italy and Germany, Philippe Etienne, the French Ambassador in Bucharest said after the meeting with the social dialogue partners. He said during the meeting with the union and employer representatives held at the Economic and Social Council (CES) headquarters that the French investment in Romania had reached $3bn. “France is more interested in Romania than in Bulgaria. The French investors come in Romania to stay, not to speculate,” the Ambassador cared to point out. He also highlighted that Romania needed an improvement in the social dialogue between employers and unions. At the same time, Etienne said the labour conflicts could be better addressed if Romania established labour courts. The idea of establishing labour courts was also promoted by the representatives of the main Romanian union confederations during the meeting with the French Ambassador. ZF