KOTA KINABALU – Romania is eyeing new cooperation projects with Malaysia that can benefit people in both countries says Romanian Ambassador to Malaysia and Brunei Nineta Barbulescu.
She said Romania, which established bilateral relations with Malaysia in 1969, hoped to assist with new projects in various fields such as agriculture, renewable energy, green project, tourism and academic studies.
“It is important for this point in time to start new projects to foster a good bilateral relationship that we have as countries and people…for me, it is important to advance new ideas,” she told a press conference here tonight.
Barbulescu presented her credentials as Romania’s envoy to Malaysia to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah at Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur on Nov 10 last year.
The ambassador said in terms of academics, it was important to nurture good ties between universities in both countries as a platform to create good academic projects.
Barbulescu said she was also looking forward to engaging more with tourist operators in Malaysia, especially in Sabah, to promote tourism for both countries.
“I do love ‘roti canai’ and ‘roti canai telur’, I’m still in my ‘honeymoon’ period with durian, still working on it, (durian) ice cream and pancake I can go (with). In Sabah, tiger prawn is a privilege for me, and I’m impressed with the richness of flora and fauna here,” she said.
According to Barbulescu, cultural projects are also important as they will create a huge avenue of people-to-people contact for both countries to understand each other’s culture and history better.
Asked about how Romania and Malaysia can move forward together in facing the challenges of COVID-19, especially in the economic field, she said in practical terms, besides government to government contact, more business to business contact must be fostered.
“We do have recently approved plans of recovery and resilience, Romania had approved billions of Euros, it is a huge amount of money for many approved projects in next five years…these projects that could be tapped into jointly is a huge opportunity not only through government, but business contact as well,” she said.
