PRESS COMMUNIQUE
September 16th, 2005
Romania is q good place for investments, was the message conveyed by president Traian Basescu on Thursday, September 15th this year, at San Francisco , during the working lunch with representatives of the main companies from the state of California .
The honorary consul Lia Roberts, representatives from the firms Oracle, Bechtel, Solectron , Hewlett Packard, High Tech Passport, Recognos , The Crosby Group, TEN, Innova Solutions, Panomics Inc., Chevron Texaco, Venture Angel Investors Roundatble , Sun Microsystems, 3DGEO took part in this lunch.
On the occasion of the visit to the Oracle, with the headquarters in San Francisco , president Basescu fostered the intention of this firm to expand its investments in Romania . Otherwise, the president of Oracle, Mrs. Safra Catz , of Romanian origin, praised the earnestness and the professionalism of the young Romanians working already within the firm, pointing out that their high qualification is an additional reason why one should promote this firm's investments in our country. The President said that he would suggest to minister Miclea to replace the programming language Turbo-Pascal with the Oracle programming.
Likewise, president Traian Basescu met with the chairmanship of Bechtel, pointing out, during the discussions, that the Corridor IV was a priority for Romania . At the same time, the head of state assured the Bechtel chairmanship that the new Government would not annul the contract, but it was necessary “that things became legal". In a press statement, president Basescu asserted that the former government promoted a Government decision, but not the annexes with technical-economic indicators. “For this reason, the current Government is facing difficulties in paying the firm Bechtel”, said the head of state.
President Basescu met with leaders of the Romanian-American community on the West Coast of the USA as well, to whom he thanked for the vote they cast on December 2004, as 85% of the Romanians with a voting right in the USA voted for president Basescu . During the discussions, the leaders of the Romanian-American community required a change of the electoral law to allow for an electronic ballot, as well as the possibility for the Romanians in the diaspora to be represented in the Parliament.
The president of the state met with the Romanian community at the Romanian House in San Francisco , the most outstanding ethnical and cultural landmark of the Romanian community in the region. At the American census in 2002, 57,000 persons in the state of California claimed themselves to be of Romanian origins, out of which 17,000 in the area of San Francisco .
In the afternoon, president Basescu held a speech at Stanford University on the topic of promoting freedom and stability beyond the Eastern border of the EU and NATO. The president displayed the main causes why the wide Black Sea area needs to receive the attention of democratic state, warning on the threat potential the Black Sea poses to the European Union countries, to Romania included, taking into consideration drug traffic, illegal people and weapons traffic. These elements made Romania extremely interested in knowing what is going on in the wide Black Sea area, in participating in controlling and mitigating threats, in turning into account the national interest as a riparian state at the Black Sea , said the president of the country. The head of state pointed out that the solidarity of all the democratic states was called for in promoting stability and security in the area in order to avoid the rehearsal of some situations similar with what had been happening in the Western Balkans. Likewise, president Basescu stressed the need for the EU states to back the reform of the institutions in Ukraine and Georgia . At the same time, the head of state reassessed the position of Romania in relation to the Republic of Moldova , upholding the European path of this country and acknowledging its territorial integrity.
The president of the state met with the Association of Romanian Students at Stanford University, counting approximately 63 members and visited Hoover Institute which is hosting a unique collection of documents and objects of the Royal family (letters from king Ferdinand, a manuscript of Queen Mary, pictures of that era), collections from the newspapers appeared during the December 1989 Revolution, as well as electoral posters from 1990-2004, with the main candidates to the presidency of Romania.
On Friday, the last day of the visit in the USA , the delegation of Romania will meet with representatives of the Ford Company and of the Romanian-American community in Chicago and Detroit .
The Department for Public Communication
16 September 2005