Abstract:

The article deals with the substantial contribution of foreign direct investments to the intensification of Romania's foreign trade relations and to their qualitative improvement in the period 2007-2019. The motivation for choosing this topic is that one of the research issues addressed recently was that of the effects of foreign direct investment on the development of the Romanian economy and manufacturing industry, foreign trade relations being an important component of this development. The research methodology used is that of analyzing the share of foreign direct investment enterprises in the external trade relations of the manufacturing industry, on the export and import side, as well as highlighting the qualitative and qualitative changes produced in these relations in terms of relevant indicators such as the ratio of coverage of import by export, the shares of foreign direct investment  enterprises in external trade relations by levels of technological intensity of manufacturing activities, the relative trade balance. The analysis was completed with conclusions on the spectacular increase in the volume of foreign trade relations during the period, significant increase in exports and imports, the latter at a higher rate, high but declining level of external trade deficit, improving the quality of exports by significant increasing share of products with a medium-high technological level and the reduction, but to a small extent, of those with low technological intensity.