EconMin Popescu: Car industry in Romania to produce medical equipment and develop a breathing device

The Romanian car industry wants to help Romanian economy and contribute to the production of medical equipment and products like masks, coveralls and biocides, while also taking part in a project meant to develop a breathing device for patients with coronavirus, the Minister of Economy, Virgil Popescu, informed on Thursday.

"The car industry has its own specific problems. For this is an industry that contributes a lot to Romania's GDP, but which is also dependant on the industries in such European countries as Germany, France and Italy. If production stops there, then it will automatically stop everything in Romania too. The most important thing that we learnt yesterday [Wednesday, April 1, 2020 - editor's note] from the discussion with the representatives of the car industry is that, during this time, they want to contribute and help the Romanian economy, help the Romanians. They want to contribute by producing essential products, they want to produce masks and they have a large capacity to produce such equipment, and biocides, since they also have a highly advanced chemical industry at their disposal, through their partners that are traditional suppliers to the car industry. So, basically, they can producer everything that we need right now - masks, coveralls, biocides (...)," Popescu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster.

According to the Minister, the car industry in Romania will also take part in a national project meant to develop a breathing device needed to help the COVID-19 patients to breath.

"(...) They want [the car industry's representatives - editor's note] to produce [the masks, coveralls, biocides - editor's note] and, also, to participate in this national project of ours to build a breathing device to help the coronavirus patients breath. Things get more complicated when it comes to the breathing device than in the case of the masks, coveralls and biocides. There will be a very large team working and I hope to see some concrete results as soon as possible. In exchange, when it comes to the production of masks, they told me that they can move very fast and that they are already preparing the patterns to be approved by one of the four institutes of the army, which need to approve, first, all the products that they can make," said the official.