President Klaus Iohannis urged the Romanian entrepreneurs to bring ideas to the government in connection with the production of materials that help prevent and combat the novel coronavirus.

"I'm addressing our entrepreneurs: be pro-active, bring ideas to the government because we are interested in promoting Romanian goods in particular in this period. It is a very good opportunity for the Romanian [business] environment. We need these materials, we have this opportunity," Iohannis said at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

The president made a statement at the end of a meeting of assessment and presentation of the measures regarding the COVID-19 epidemic management attended by prime minister Ludovic Orban, Public Finance minister Florin Citu, Economy, Energy and Business Environment minister Virgil Popescu, National Defence minister Nicolae Ciuca, European Funds minister Marcel Bolos and the Transport, Infrastructure and Communications minister Lucian Bode.

He specified that the talks focused on solutions for the production of materials related to combating COVID-19 and mentioned that, at a global level, these products are fewer and fewer.

"We have discussed about protective materials, about masks, scrubs and so on. They are increasingly to find worldwide. It is a real problem. And thus, we already started, a few weeks ago, to identify Romanian producers who are coming and offering such materials. And the first results have not been long in coming. We have learned today, at the meeting, that there are already producers of ours who have re-specialised, who will produce masks, others will produce protective clothing for the medical staff, others are already starting to work on more complicated materials, such as respirators that are absolutely necessary for the emergency departments," the president said.AGERPRES(RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)