The U.S. ambassador to Romania and his counterpart, the Romanian ambassador to the U.S., will visit Atlanta Thursday, Feb. 7, as part of a three-city caravan to invite U.S. companies to do business in the European country.
Nicholas Taubman, who has represented the U.S. in Bucharest for nearly three years, told GlobalAtlanta in a telephone interview from there that he and Adrian Vierita, who in January filled a yearlong void in the Romanian Embassy, would also visit Washington and New York.
Besides the European Union countries, the U.S. already ranks as the largest foreign investor in Romania, which gained access to the E.U. about a year ago.
As with many recently admitted E.U. countries, Romania has begun to field increasing interest in foreign investment from countries all over the world, and there is room for more U.S. involvement, Mr. Taubman said.
“Any new member of the European Union who comes in almost immediately recognizes an influx of new companies from all over the world who want to come and do business there for a variety of reasons,” he said.
Shackled by a repressive form of communism for about a half-century, Romania still lacks much of the basic infrastructure necessary to support a healthy capitalist economy, and the E.U. has given Romania about 33 billion euros to be spent developing infrastructure projects in over the next 10 years, Mr. Taubman added.
Most of the opportunity for Georgia companies is in that sector, but Mr. Taubman said that there are also many other ongoing projects that could be interesting and profitable.
Mr. Taubman and Mr. Vierita will be speaking at the World Trade Center Atlanta on Thursday, Feb. 7, from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Representatives of the U.S. Commerce Department and the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania are also to attend.
The cost of attending the seminar is $40.
Listen in as Mr. Taubman talks about the advantages for Georgia and how companies from here should go about investing in Romania and using it as a gateway to the broader European market.
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.
