Speech of the PM of the Czech Republic Mirek Topolánek at the Czech-Romanian entrepreneurial and investment forum given on 22nd January 2008

Romania has been our traditional business partner since the 1st Republic. It is a good basis of our economic relations, which were given a new stimulus of course after the Romanian accession to the CEFTA in 1993 and to the European Union last year. I will dare to mention some pleasant data. The trade exchange in the time period 2001-2006 increased between Romania and the Czech Republic four times, and there is a realistic presumption that our mutual trade exceeded 1,5 billion euro in the last year.
Romania is the most significant economic partner of the Czech Republic in the South-Eastern Europe, even before such large countries like Turkey and Ukraine. It concerns both trade and Czech investments. Entrepreneurial environment is improving in Romania and thus also the competition is being strengthened. I am pleased, of course, that Czech firms show increasing interest in the Romanian market and they have invested here already 500-600 million euros. I believe that investments will flow in both directions even more in the future.
Also today's signature of the protocol on amendment to the Agreement on the Promotion and Reciprocal Investment Protection will contribute to it. In this connection I fully support regional missions of Czech entrepreneurs in Romania, such as the mission to Timisoara. Cooperation between regions is very useful and has a great potential. Romania as a country on the eastern frontier of the EU is close to strategically important regions: the West Balkan, Transcaucasia, the Central Asia, the Middle East. Czech and Romanian firms should use this location of Romania for mutual cooperation on third markets.
Generally said, last year's accession of Romania to the common European market is a key event, which brings large expansion of trade opportunities. The Czech Republic experienced such turning point five years ago and we are ready to share our experience with Romania. In particular, I offer our aid in drawing means from the structural funds of the EU. It is a very complicated administrative process, which causes problems both in the Czech Republic and in Romania, and we will help you to analyse them. We should also cooperate in the sphere of free movement of workers and services. It is in our common interest, as new countries, to fight for really free union market, so that all the four principal freedoms of the EU would be accomplished. For the sake of order I remind you that the Czech Republic deregulated its labour market for Romania and Bulgaria immediately after their accession to the Union. It is a principle which we regard as right and we respect it consistently. All countries lose on free market restrictions, in the end; not only countries like the Czech Republic and Romania, whose citizens and firms cannot fully enforce their potential, but also citizens of countries which apply these barriers and thus restrict sound competition.
To summarize my speech, only three expressions would be enough: common tradition, common interests, and common future. We can live from our long-term relations, we can profit from the same opinions relating to the UE. And we can believe in further development of the economic cooperation of our countries.
Both governments will try to prepare the best possible conditions for your entrepreneurship. The rest is up to you.