Romanian president wants more Korean investment

 Romanian President Traian Basescu arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a two-day visit, hoping to improve the relationship between the countries by attracting more investment and increasing trade.

In just 15 years, Korea has become the largest investor in Romania with 91 companies investing over 227 billion won, but as Basescu pointed out in an interview with The Korea Herald, there's been a rapid increase of interest from Chinese and Japanese investors in light of his country's accession to the European Union.

Ahead of his arrival here, Korea's largest conglomerate, Samsung Corporation, announced plans to increase investment in Romania's infrastructure projects.

Basescu said he would like to see a renewed interest from Korean companies in the Romanian economy, considering the latest improvements in the business environment of the southeastern European nation.

Korea has become the third largest Asian exporter to Romania after China and Japan. As it stands now, both countries share a "favorable bilateral legal framework coupled with economic compatibilities, good practices of cooperation, expertise and mutual interest, which offers a solid premise for increased trade."

Currently the bilateral trade between Korea and Romania stands at 474 billion won in favor of Korea. In order to balance the deficit, the president is hoping to get Romanian companies to increase exports to Korea.