Romania has an interesting history with the African market, but the big mistake is that some markets were lost, such as Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria,” Burci told Business Standard. Moreover, other businesspeople, such as Fatih Taher, Chairman of the Board of Electroputere Craiova energy company and Tiberiu Urdăreanu, owner of the UTI group, said that the Africa and Middle East are a business opportunities. “We forewent Africa and Russia and turned to Western Europe, as a sole [export] market.
However, time proves that Africa was not to be left behind. Just like, 20 years ago, Eastern Europe was a new market, with great potential, I believe that the African market will be the next development point,” Burci said. The businessman said he plans to take the products of ICIM Arad (Ed.n. - construction company he recently acquired) to the African market.
Thus, ICIM’s net sales could triple in 2010, to €60 million. On the other hand, Burci said that Romania’s economy will register an approximate 10 percent drop this year, since certain useless costs were not cut at the right moment and the restructuring process was not finalized.
President Traian Băsescu said, during a recent meeting with Lebanese businesspeople, that Romania was wrong to rely only on European Union members as export markets, stressing that Romania should come up with “more intelligent” economic policies. Considering that 70 percent of Romania’s exports go to EU countries, he expressed his regret for losing, over the past 20 years, the traditional markets in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Russia.
