The Central & Eastern European (CEE) countries, including Romania, have the highest growth potentials in the EU. Reflecting this situation, Korea has been expanding its efforts on economic cooperation issues, such as trade and investment, with these countries. After the Korea-EU FTA came into effect in July 2011, Korea’s exports to EU have been underperforming due to economic recession throughout the EU. However, Korea’s trade with the CEE countries has remained stable and Korea has continued to maintain a trade surplus with these countries. Most of the CEE countries, who joined the EU in 2004, served as a dynamic growth engine for the EU, showing rapid economic growth, increase in income, expansion in trade and FDI growth, until the global financial crisis in 2008. Romania, who joined the EU in 2007 and experienced the global financial crisis together, did not hitherto have a proper opportunity to realize its economic growth. Therefore, possibilities are high for Romania to serve as the growth engine of the EU in the near future. As the EU market has the world’s greatest purchasing power, Korean companies and the government are looking forward to expanding economic cooperation with the CEE countries to gain further access into the EU market. Yet, information on Romania remains relatively scarce compared to other countries.
  This study has selected two Romanian industries with high growth potentials to strengthen Korea-Romania industrial cooperation and to suggest effective entry into the Romanian market, with the aim of enhancing Korea-CEE economic cooperation to overcome contracted market access in the EU following the European sovereign debt crisis. This study has analyzed the potentials of the Romanian economy as a growth engine of the EU, and the possibilities of industrial cooperation with Korea. More specifically, we have selected the information communication & technology (ICT) sector and infrastructure sector as our main industries in focus to analyze the risk factors, potentials, cooperation possibilities of each sector, through which we will seek strategic means to invigorate market entry.
  This study has collected a variety of related statistical data and references both from Romanian and international sources. And in order to analyse the competitiveness of the industrial sector, we have looked into the statistical trade analysis of manufacturing industry. Along with qualitative and quantitative analyses, we have interviewed Romanian and Korean experts to ensure a high level of objectivity.
  Among the CEE countries, Romania has the second largest population after Poland. Coming into the 2000s, Romania showed strong economic growth based on the inflow of FDI and growth in exports the nation saw after its accession to the EU. Romania has one of the highest economic growth potentials among EU member states, and is generating the most favorable economic results in recent days. Romania has maintained a relatively low level of commodity price, stable level of wage increase, decrease in value-added tax, and rise of purchasing power for individuals, thus leading to private consumption-led growth. In 2017, Romania is expected to achieve a 5.8% GDP growth rate, which is the highest among EU members. This trend of economic boosting is linked with improvement in investment sentiments from the 2nd quarter of 2017, and extended to develop production capacity and infrastructure, improvement in production levels, and so on, to increase expectations for the Romanian economy to converge to the average level of the EU.
  ICT is an industry sector that both the Romanian government and EU are keen to develop. The Digital Agenda of Europe was suggested in line with EU’s growth strategy “Europe 2020” to establish a European digital single market by 2020. In order to reach this target, it will be necessary to narrow the gap of digital technology within the EU region. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the Romanian ICT sector, and indeed the Romanian government is intent to do so. Despite the fact that internet and mobile coverage are relatively high, Romanian ICT infrastructure has shown the lowest level of development compared to other EU member states. Romania is ranked the 58th in the world according to the ITU’s 2017 ICT development index, indicating that Romanian ICT infrastructure remains insufficient. However, in terms of ICT services, Romania is highly competitive compared to any other EU member state, especially thanks to the relatively low wage level of its skilled IT labor force. Therefore, numerous global IT companies are operating in Romania in the form of outsourcing, near-shoring, etc.
  Romania is the largest recipient of EU funds for regional development. Most of these funds allocated for Romania are planned for infrastructure development. In February 2015, the Romanian government announced a revised version of its transportation master plan to develop roads, railways, air transport, naval and intermodal transport by 2030. Based on this vision, CNAIR and other related institutions are carrying on numerous projects utilising EU funds. According to BMI, the value of road and bridge infrastructure in Romania is expected to grow beyond 15 billion Romanian lei.
  When assessing the external and internal aspects of entering into the Romanian market, the core competence of Korean companies was slightly lower than the average of their competitors in Romania but they showed an average level of coping with opportunity or threat factors. Regarding this assessment using SWOT analysis, here we will suggest strategies for Korean companies when entering into the Romanian market.
  As a Strength-Opportunity combined strategy (S-O strategy), we suggest considering the establishment of an EU production base in Romania, an EU member state with high growth potential. To achieve this, the companies can make use of their competitiveness in high technology, such as in the IT sector, and comparative advantage in steel, automobile, electrical electronics, machinery, etc. It would be a realistic approach to establish a production base in the ICT sector in Romania, which is a fast-growing sector that hosts a number of foreign companies. This strategy is to utilize the opportunity factors available, such as the favorable market access allowed by the relatively open and well-developed infrastructure of the EU. It is in line with Korean companies’ establishing electronic and automobile parts producing factories in the North-western region of Romania near the Hungarian border.
  EU’s government procurement market, which is the largest in the world, is focusing on the infrastructure development projects as part of regional development policy in the new member states including Romania. Therefore, recently Romanian public procurement has been continuously expanding. Among the €454 billion mid-term budget of the 2014-2020 EU fund, €30.84 billion will be allocated to eight different countries and regional programmes. The total budget of the EU fund for Romanian job creation and expand employment, environmental protection, support on social engagement, and so on, is €36.47 billion, among which Romania should independently fund €5.63 billion. As a second S-O strategy to exploit the opportunities of market growth potential and favorable market access in the EU’s emerging market Romania, it would be promising to promote participation in the Romanian government procurement market.
  The third S-O strategy is to consider establishing a base in Romania to enter the emerging Eastern European market while minimizing threat factors. Macroeconomic performance, such as GDP growth, commodity price, exchange rate, etc., in Romania is stable and the nation has rich growth potentials as such a dynamic emerging market. If Korean companies establish an entry access point at the emerging Eastern European market in Romania, with their competitiveness and willingness to develop a market, the companies may expect increase in export to the nearby Balkan countries, Russia and other promising CIS countries.
  We can suggest the following three strategies as Weakness- Opportunity strategies (W-O factor combination strategies). The first is to overcome the actual and psychological gap in the European market and focusing the European business base in Romania to establish an EU market entry base aiming for the world’s largest purchasing power. Considering the personnel expenses and geographical conditions, the gap can be overcome somewhat though establishing the general base in Romania, where excellent language skills and abundant IT manpower would allow the organic integration of each country.
  The second is to participate in the Romanian government procurement market by collaborating with local companies. This would enable the Korean companies to overcome their weakness factor of having insufficient information on Romania, discrepancies in company culture, and lack of understanding and exchange in European culture. While the necessary legislation regarding public- private partnerships is yet to be ratified by the Parliament, the Romanian government expects to pass this in 2018 to invigorate public projects struggling with financial supply problems. Here the Korean companies, including SMEs with proper technologies, can collaborate with the local companies to participate in EU-funded government procurement projects. It is a prerequisite to establish a cooperative relationship with major Romanian companies.
  The third is to enhance understanding of Romanian culture through cultural exchange. This would be a mid- to long-term strategy to overcome the typical weaknesses of the Korean companies when entering the Romanian market. Normally, since cultural exchange should be carried out continuously as a long-term project the Korean government should actively support the projects. To succeed in the previous three S-O strategies, this strategy should serve as an important support policy simultaneously implemented by the government.
  The first Strength-Threat factors combined strategy (S-T strategy) is to launch an entry base for the internal market in the CEE countries based on price competitiveness. By utilizing the absolute or comparatively advantaged competitiveness of the Korean companies, such as in high-technology, and the companies’ willingness to exploit the market, this strategy aims to overcome the rising competition in the EU market and the technical barriers as well as to mark the domestic market of the CEE countries.
  The second S-T strategy is to increase export by considering the market characteristics of the EU internal market by market and product differentiation. This is a strategy to make use of the price competitiveness of the Korean products, willingness to develop a new market, and marketing abilities. Each EU member states have different comparative advantages. Considering that Western European countries and the new member states, including Romania, have different market characteristics, it is necessary to break down the market to apply differentiated product strategies according to the characteristics of each market. This strategy would make it possible to minimize the threat factor of the EU market facing economic recession and limitation on market growth. Moreover, since economic performance and structure are different within the EU, market differentiation by area will be an effective strategy.
  The third S-T strategy is to increase competitiveness in the EU market by securing an R&D base in Romania. This strategy would aim to overcome intensified competition and technical barriers in the EU market and maximize Korean companies’ competitiveness. Particularly, R&D cooperation between Korean companies and the promising ICT sector in Romania is a highly promising win-win strategy for both countries.
  The first Weakness-Threat factor combined strategy (W-T strategy) is to nurture market experts of the CEE countries, including Romania. It is necessary to train Romanian market experts to solve problems such as the lack of information on Romania and discrepancies with Korean business culture. Specifically considering the competitiveness in the environmental sector, lack of awareness, and various technical barriers, it is difficult to get access to the market without expertise in the local market. Besides, any company entering the Romanian market merely wishing to utilize its abundant and low-cost labor force, without perceiving the high wage increase in certain sectors and rising trend in production cost, will likely end up as a case of failure to enter the market.
  Another W-T strategy would be to improve product image through the promotion of Korean popular culture. Efforts to promote Korean culture, such as K-pop, movies, and dramas, are expected to supplement the weakness factor revealed from lack of cultural exchange. This strategy would contribute by minimizing the negative effect of the weakness factors, such as intensified competition in the EU market and overall economic recession in the EU, by increasing the positive image of Korean products. The companies can make use of the increasing demand in CEE countries of the so-called “Korean wave” of K-pop culture products.
  The final W-T strategy is to strengthen high-level intergovernmental diplomacy and economic cooperation. Enhancing economic cooperation through high-level diplomacy may serve as an important momentum to overcome the weakness factors of business culture discrepancies and lack of cultural exchange between Korea and Romania. The Korea-Romania Industry Cooperation Committee, which held its 9th session in Bucharest in April 2016, could consider elevating its participation to ministerial level or higher. The most recent summit- level diplomatic meetings were held in 2006 and 2012.