* Interview with His Excellency, Abdul Rahman Ben Ibrahim Ben Ali Ar-Rasi, ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Romania
Saudi Arabia has important opportunities for the Romanian businesspeople in Romania which want to develop projects in the Gulf-based state, especially in the construction segment, where it has scheduled investments amounting to billions of US dollars, said His Excellency, Abdul Rahman Ben Ibrahim Ben Ali Ar-Rasi, the Romanian ambassador of the Saudi kingdom. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, there is however a need for the representatives of the business environment to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with their Saudi peers, and to present concrete plans, he said.
Saudi investors are first and foremost attracted by the agricultural potential of Romania, as they want to buy or lease land, to create farms, which would export products to the area of the Persian Gulf, according to Abdul Rahman Ben Ibrahim Ben Ali Ar-Rasi.
Saudi Arabia has avoided the economic crisis, seeing a growth of over 7% last year, to which the non-oil segment had a significant contribution, the Saudi official also told us.
Reporter: How would you appreciate the economic relations between Romania and Saudi Arabia?
Abdul Rahman Ben Ibrahim Ben Ali Ar-Rasi: The relations between the two countries are excellent politically. As for the economic relations, I can say that they have not reached the level of expansion of the former, in spite the increase in the trade between the two countries. Even though its value has tripled in the past three years, reaching over 500 million Euros in 2012, that level is not satisfactory. We think that there are potential investments which could be made. We have to remember that the countries in the Gulf area, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have not been affected by the global economic crisis, d
