Country Information

EU member since January 2007, Romania’s blossoming market offers many unique advantages, not the least of which is its geographic location, as the Eastern access point to the EU market. Some of the other characteristics Romania offers include:
• A large domestic market of 22 million people (second largest in Central Europe or 2/3 of Canada’s population) on an area 2.5 times the size of Nova Scotia
• Excellent geographic location at the cross-roads of traditional commercial routes, ideally situated for the transport of goods transiting between the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and Western Europe;
• Extensive maritime and river navigation facilities;
• Free zones and shipyard facilities;
• Six international airports;
• Nationwide electric network connected to the main European networks;
• Nationwide fiber optic telecommunication network with large digital capacity integrated into the European optic cable system via satellite, as well as mobile telecom networks;
• A highly developed industrial infrastructure, including oil and petrochemicals;
• A skilled labor force trained in technology (almost 50,000 specialists) and engineering, offering competitively low wages;
• A wide range of natural resources, including fertile agricultural land, coal, oil and gas, and attractive tourist sites;
• Diplomatic relations with 176 countries;
• member of the UN, NATO, WTO and numerous other international organizations (Francophonie)

Market Opportunities
The strongest areas of opportunity for Canadian exports and investment potential include:
- information and telecommunication technology,
- energy (nuclear* and renewable/alternative)
- construction**,
- environmental products and technology,
- automotive after market sales,
- aerospace and defense,
- safety and security
- franchising

* Canada has been Romania’s main partner in the cooperation project for building the nuclear power plant in Cernavodă (unit 1 of the 4 units in the project, was commissioned in 1996.The contract for unit 2 has been into force since March 2003 and the contribution of „Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd” in goods and services has been calculated at US$ 307 million. AEC also participated in building unit 1 and has qualified for Units 3 and 4.
**In 2007 Romania recorded the highest annual pace growth in the field of construction works in the European Union with 37.5 %, followed at a distance by Great Britain (7.7%) and Slovenia (4.6 %), according to Eurostat (the EU statistics)

For more information on Romania please visit the Foreign Affairs website.