Moldovan ambassador talks China ties, upcoming Olympics

Q: During an interview last year, you mentioned Chinese companies were showing interest in large-scale investment projects in Moldova's energy and medical sectors. How will the embassy help facilitate bilateral cooperation in such fields?

Dumitru Braghis: To all Chinese companies that manifest interest in cooperating with the Republic of Moldova we provide professional support, guidance, information, data, network, investment projects portfolio, useful links, contacts and so on. We are constantly organizing dialogues between potential partners, to make the Republic of Moldova more known and more attractive to Chinese investors, tourists, students and consumers.

We work continuously on the promotion of our country's image, products, businesses and investment opportunities throughout China, which we realize by organizing various promotional events with great support from Chinese local authorities. This model of working closer with Chinese local governments proved its efficiency, as after events we conducted in various cities, the embassy is approached by more and more potential partners and investors.

One of our missions is to present the investment incentives Moldova can offer. The existing IT parks and free economic zones in the Republic of Moldova are great platforms to get access to the markets of other countries, since, as we know, the Republic of Moldova has signed free trade agreements with a number of countries: EU, CIS, CEFTA, Turkey.

The embassy has a portfolio of 20 projects which we are eager to present to the Chinese side. One of the biggest and of strong perspective is the creation in the Republic of Moldova of a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in cooperation with our State Medicine University and local investors. The Republic of Moldova is located an hour or two hours' flight away from the major European cities, and we already are a destination for medical tourism.

By creating such a university and a TCM center in Moldova we can attract students and patients from both Eastern and Western Europe. I take the opportunity in this interview to call all interested parties to visit our embassy, to contact us, in order to know more about what Moldova can offer.