Role, objectives

The Club was created at the initiative of the Romanian Embassy in Brussels and of a number of Romanian and Belgian entrepreneurs and organizations. The Club aims at developing overall economic cooperation between Romanian and Belgian companies as well as businessmen and supporting partnerships and the transfer of good practices/ expertise in the win-win logic. Concretely, the Club intends to:

- Provide information on the two countries’ business environment and economic profile (areas of excellence, regulations, competitiveness poles, development priorities, strategic areas, banking systems, financial markets etc.);

- Facilitate contacts between:

• Romanian   and   Belgian companies interested in developing  business and investment opportunities and long-term cooperation;
• policy-makers at central and local level;
• European institutions’ and Romanian and Belgian academia’s representatives

- Promote and enhance visibility of businesses / successful projects that have proven their viability in the last years;

- Stimulate debates and exchanges of opinions, particularly between employers’ associations, oriented towards correlating approaches in areas of mutual interest of the Southern and Eastern European neighborhood, with a view to possible joint undertakings on third markets.


Status

The Belgium - Romania Business Club will start as an open, advisory, flexible, non -institutionalized framework for meetings, linking in an informal network all relevant economic stakeholders. The membership is free of charge for 2009-2010. The participation at certain activities could be charged.


Activities

The Club aims to be a vehicle for:

• Organizing seminars, conferences and workshops under the patronage / with the participation of  Belgian and Romanian personalities who carry out economic or research activities in areas of common interest;
• Setting up a database containing information on institutions, federations, associations and organizations whose activity are of interest to members;
• Managing a website;
• Attracting sponsorships in order to organize limited-format events devoted to lobby actions and actions meant to promote interests of the Club’s members;
• Conducting a campaign in order to make known the Club’s objectives and activities at the level of the European Parliament, European Commission, European employers’ federations and professional associations.

Working Plan for 2009- 2010

• Launching of the Business Club - November 16, 2009;
• Event on renewable energy and bilateral cooperation opportunities in the field – in collaboration with the two countries’ relevant federations - March 2010;
• Presentation of opportunities of investment and economic cooperation at local and regional level in Romania – in collaboration with the National Union of the County Councils of Romania (,,Uniunea Naţională a Consiliilor Judeţene din România” - UNCJR) - June 2010;
• Event on the economic agenda of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council - September 2010;
• Event on building & construction industry and bilateral cooperation opportunities - in collaboration with the two countries’ relevant federations - November 2010;
• Monthly coordination meetings.