Basescu in Shanghai - Chinese Sneakers

Welcomed by children with red ties, with applauses and "warm" chants, which remembered about the times not long ago in Romania, President Traian Basescu started his official visit to China yesterday.

The President went to Shanghai first, to talk to businesspersons, to whom he proposed a solution for the Chinese sneakers, the import of which is taxed more in the EU. "The European Union adopted measures to protect it from the goods manufactured in China. This is why, I suggest to the Chinese businesspersons to make direct investments in Romania, which mean direct investments in the EU. Developing companies to produce in Romania means production in the EU, which cannot be put beyond these barriers", the Romanian President taught the Chinese businesspersons. Attracting them has significance as well: the level of the commercial exchange between Romania and China in the past year has reached 1.9 billion, 1.5 billion of which are Romanian imports, compared to the 400 million euros that came from the exports to China.

A delegation formed by Romanian businesspersons took part at the Romanian-Chinese Business Forum. Tiberiu Udreanu (UTI) is one of the names present on the guest list. However, the delegation of the businesspersons didn’t come together with the Presidential delegation.

SKIPPER, NOT DRIVER

After the official speeches, President Traian Basescu became a target himself. At first, the former Mayor spent about half an hour at the town center admiring the projects that are to become real in Shanghai by 2010. Huge layouts, overpasses like the one he didn’t get to do at Basarab and so on. Skipper Basescu also got his piece of fun. He got on the wheel of a motor boat and virtually sailed it in front of a huge screen that simulated the water and the bridge under which he managed to pass from the first try, humiliating a Chinese official that hit all the walls until then. When he turned the boat around, also virtually, the President also hit a wall a little with the back. The computer allowed Basescu to drive on a bridge in Shanghai as well, but he gave a trenchant answer to the instructor: "I am a skipper, not a driver".

Translated by Sorin Balan