THE BENEFITS of building business links with Romania were highlighted by President Mary McAleese as she arrived in Bucharest yesterday on her first state visit to the country.
In a speech delivered at a trade dinner hosted by Enterprise Ireland last night, Mrs McAleese said "the long years when our relationships were relatively undeveloped have given way to a shared partnership in the European Union and a shared future that we are already building together".
The visit has been marred somewhat by protests over Romania's human rights record.
John Mulligan of the human rights group Focus on Romania said the President's visit appeared to lend Irish support to Romania's "appalling'' human rights record, particularly its treatment of people with disabilities.
Since Romania had joined the EU, its proposed reform of the disability sector had "ground to a halt'', he said.
Romania was claiming to have the best laws in that regard but was failing to implement them, he added.
However, the Romanian ambassador to Ireland yesterday described the claims as "hugely exaggerated'' and insisted Romania's human rights record had greatly improved.
Ambassador Silvia Stancu Davidoiu told RTÉ's News at One: "Things are improving, Romania is not the state that it used to be in the 1990s with a lot of institutional problems."
While it could be there were some abandoned children, she did not believe there were thousands of them, the ambassador added.
Romania has "a very good law in the field of protection of children and I think it's up to the high standards in the EU," Ms Stancu Davidoiu said.
Irish exports to Romania have grown annually by a third over the last five years and were valued at more than €170 million last year.
The President said she hoped her visit would "help to forge deep and robust bonds of friendship" between the two countries.
Both now have "the peace and prosperity and mutual respectful partnerships that our parents and grandparents thought impossible but prayed and worked for nonetheless," she said.
Mrs McAleese noted the "robust economic growth levels" and inward investment maintained by Romania. While Romania's GDP was less than €6,000 per person last year, its economy grew at the same rate at the Irish economy while its unemployment rate was less than 4 per cent.
Ireland was a "far cry from the poor country which joined the EU 30 years ago", Mrs McAleese said.
Romania joined the EU in January 2007. The transition of Romania was reflected in the "changing profile of business between us " from a place to outsource production to a place of demand for products and services, the President said.
Mrs McAleese mentioned ESB International (ESBI) which has signed a €6.6 million engineering contract with the Romanian branch of one of Europe's biggest oil firms, OMV-Petrom.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin has joined the President and Dr Martin McAleese on the three-day visit along with the Ambassador of Ireland to Romania John Morahan as well as an Irish cultural delegation of musicians and dancers.
Later today Mrs McAleese is due to meet Romania's president Traian Basecu and prime minister Calin Popesu Tariceanu.