The China-Romania relationship is one of the most important partnerships Romania has, and the recent session of the joint economic committee between the two countries saw major progress in economic collaboration, Doru Romulus Costea, Romanian ambassador to China, told the Global Times.

In an interview with the Global Times, Costea said Romania values the history between the two countries and is willing to elevate the partnership to the next level.

China is Romania's first partner in Asia and next year will mark the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In July, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta proposed upgrading the bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during substantive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. He also attended the Local Leaders' Meeting between China and Central and Eastern European Countries in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality with a view to further boosting direct links and cooperation between some 30 pairs of "sister" Romanian and Chinese local authorities.

"We are working to give more substance to this partnership," said Costea, adding that the partnership is based on three pillars, namely political dialogue, economic cooperation and people-to-people relations.

On the economic relationship between the two countries, Costea said the cooperation is an ongoing development, but what both sides have achieved so far falls short of being up to their potential.

"We are talking about Chinese investment in Romania in very specific fields, such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture and tourism. The prospects look good but there are problems to be solved, issues like increasing competition over the Romanian market, greater awareness of particulars of our respective economies, improving the competitiveness of our program for the Chinese market," said Costea.

Both countries recently completed the 23rd session of the Joint Economic Committee, which was held in the first week of September in Beijing.

During the meeting, China and Romania reviewed some very concrete projects, including an energy contract between Oltenia, a Romanian state-owned power firm, and China's Huadian Corporation to jointly launch construction of a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant worth 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

The deal is very close to being finalized, added Costea.

Romania's power generation industry, with a mix of coal, hydro, nuclear and wind energy, is predominantly state-owned and must shut down a third of its aging units by 2020, creating business opportunities for foreign investors to replace them, Reuters reported.

Other projects that have been discussed during the meeting include highway construction and hydropower stations.

"In my opinion it is important to have shared interests in economic collaboration. Romania's interest is to have these projects implemented. And by implementing these projects, Chinese companies will add to their record a good element to demonstrate their competence and efficiency, which will look favorable, especially in Europe, should there be other infrastructure biddings in the future," said Costea.