British Ambassador Robin Barnett visited Cluj-Napoca and Targu Mures, between 14-16 July 2009, as part of his regional travel programme. With a mix of commercial, political, NGO and cultural calls, the visit demonstrated the strength of British presence in Transylvania and the impact it has on local developments since Romania's EU accession.

This is Ambassador Barnett's account on the regional trip:

'I have just come back from a most enjoyable visit in Transylvania, where I went to both Cluj-Napoca and Targu-Mures. The most impressive thing about this visit was the three British business success stories: Betfair in Cluj, and Provident Financial and Plastic Engineering in Targu-Mures.

There is no doubt that the global economic crisis has hit Romania quite hard, but I was delighted to see that even in these difficult times there are high quality British companies doing really well here in Romania. Betfair, for example, Britain's leading online gaming company, has just opened a large new back office centre which will be doing much of the development of its software. CEO David Yu  was very impressed by the quality and imagination of his Romanian employees.

As part of my trade-related agenda, I attended the opening of a new Provident Financial office in Targu Mures. Provident Financial is already a success story in Romania, a company that provides small loans to individuals and in less than three years it has already acquired over 100, 000 customers. The fact that it is moving rapidly to develop a network of offices across the entire country shows the confidence the British company has in the Romanian market.

I also visited Plastic Engineering in Targu Mures, which produces small, specialised plastic parts, mostly for the automotive industry. When I visited it two years ago, it shared a small factory with another company. Now it's in a space 10  times the size and is a success model for plastic engineering Romanian business.

In addition to the economic content of my trip, I was proud to visit Little People NGO, a fantastic organisation dedicated primarily to helping people suffering from cancer in both Bucharest and Cluj. It makes me proud to be British because of the way in which so many British charities or employees of British companies in Romania are trying to do their part to help those most in need in society. It was also a truly humbling experience to meet some of the people who are bravely caring on with life despite having had some really bad experiences with cancer is

Finally, in both Cluj and Targu-Mures I had the chance to discuss prospects for the future with the local authorities. It is clear that despite delays, EU funds are beginning to flow into these regions and that is starting to be reflected in work to improve the local infrastructure. I think that would be extremely good news for potential British investors in the Transylvania region.'