The department within the Ministry of National Defense that deals with equipping the Army is more favorable to acquisitions than to the development of domestic military production, so Romania will not have a production that counts for export, claims the president of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR), Mihai Daraban.

'I don't really believe in the future of military production in our country because the Endowment Department of the Ministry of Defense, in general, is more favorable to purchases than to domestic production, and it was seen with the corvette project, and many others, with Airbus at Ghimbav and with Bell Helicopter and everything we tried. They don't have the patience to lay the foundation for a domestic production of military material, military equipment, let's say. They are big buyers. They are like children who want to play with that toy tomorrow and if the toy has a fairly long manufacturing cycle, they prefer to buy it rather than produce it in the country. So I have great doubts as long as the Endowment Department remains in its current form at the Ministry of Defense.

I have great doubts that there will be military production in Romania that will count for export in the medium and long term. I would like at least to keep our word to the Koreans we engaged with last year, with Hanwha Aerospace, with Hyundai Rotem. I was in Korea in June and they said that no one had answered their phone for 6 months, so I am refraining', declared Mihai Daraban, at the conference 'The need for restructuring and reconstruction of the Romanian national economy in a changing world', organized by the Association for Economic and Social Studies and Forecasts.

For his part, the president of the Association for Economic and Social Studies and Forecasts (ASPES), Constantin Boștină, stressed that the need for a defense industry and for strengthening national and European defense capacity is not in question. However, he added that 'we would be smart', Romanians and Europeans, if we promoted the spirit of Helsinki and emphasized diplomacy and balanced relations, which would diminish the danger of war and conflicts.

'I'm afraid, speaking of artificial intelligence, that we'll find ourselves arming ourselves and being blown up by artificial intelligence, because we don't know what's happening from this point of view. We're going big with tanks, we're going big with drones, we're going big with I don't know what, and at some point you'll find yourself with something else from artificial intelligence, not what we're doing today, but what others are probably thinking, which we don't know about yet,' added Constantin Bostina.

The Association for Economic-Social Studies and Forecasts (ASPES) is organizing a conference on Tuesday with the theme: 'The need for restructuring and reconstruction of the Romanian national economy in a changing world'.

The National Press Agency AGERPRES is the media partner of the event.AGERPRES (RO - writing by: George Banciulea, editing by: Mariana Nicaș EN - writing by: Catalin Cristian Trandafir)