* The Chinese still seem to be patient with us
* The local authorities are better at pleading their cause
* The Chinese will pick three major projects to invest in
No minister or secretary of state attended the inauguration of the CET exhibition (China Engineering and Technology) yesterday, at the Bucharest International Technical Fair (TIB), even though, on a declarative level, the Government is interested in China's billions of dollars.
The organizer of the CET fair (which hasn't attended the TIB over the last few years) is CHINCA (a Chinese professional association of the largest Chinese construction companies), under the high professional patronage of the Chinese Ministry of Trade. The Chinese took one step forward and came to Romania with an impressive delegation of 100 officials and representatives of the big Chinese companies, encouraged by the recent visits of the delegated ministers for the business environment (Lucian Isar and Mihai Voicu).
At first, the minister of Transports, Ovidiu Silaghi, as well as the delegated minister for the business sector, Mihai Voicu, enthusiastically confirmed they would attend the event. Just as the event was about to occur, the two changed their mind, claiming they had to attend yesterday's government meeting.
The management of the Romanian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (ARACO), which co-organized the CET fair with CHINCA, sent prime-minister Victor Ponta a letter requesting the mandating of one of the two ministers to welcome the Chinese and to send them an official message from the Romanian authorities. The letter yielded no result. The Ministry of Transports was not represented by anyone yesterday, and the Minister of the Economy sent in advisor Andrei Pogonaru, Radu Zaharia - head of the international relations department and Dan Simion, the general manager of the Romanian
