Financial Press Review, 2 June

The exchange rate, the disastrous state of the railways, the poor quality of fuel and the personnel policy of the public administration were widely discussed topics by the financial press.

Under the heading ‘Strengthening of leu stifles exports according to entrepreneurs. BNR had no comments’, the Ziarul Financiar wrote: ‘A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) at the beginning of the year showed that the leu was overvalued by 13 percent. The appreciation of the leu continued.’

‘Entrepreneurs required a weaker leu to make products more competitive on foreign markets.’

Especially that, according to the daily Bursa – the dynamics of exports is already declining.

Unless the exports are now the only engine of growth and slowing them might jeopardize the chances of the economic recovery, the Businessmen Association in Romania pointed.

The Ziarul Financiar published an extensive and documented article entitled ‘CFR Engineers talk about railways disaster.’

‘We find the railway infrastructure in a situation which we characterize as similar to a postwar’, it was shown in the statement of the General Association of Engineers in Romania (AGIR).

‘One of the causes of the disastrous railroads was the excessive politicization of the teams within the management of the railway companies, therefore the lack of continuity and the questionable experience of the politically appointed managers (CFR had 15 managers since1998 until last year)’, the newspaper noted.

‘Negligible, disorganized, underfinanced and sometimes stolen, the Romanian railway crashed continuously in the last 20 years’, the railway engineers argued.

‘Romania ear-marked only 147 euros per km of track, meaning 58 times less than Bulgaria.’

There lacks a coherent strategy for the freight and passengers transport.

The Ziarul Financiar published on another page a personal view of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank.

‘Politics and the public administration’ – Dan Pascariu claimed – ‘should be like any other jobs: finance, engineering, commerce, tourism, architecture etc.’

‘But as long as the appointments or promotions continue to be made under the party loyalty or based on “auctions” in the purest Phanariot style, these areas will mainly attract mediocre people and opportunists, while the talented, competent and qualified persons will move to those domains that ensure their assertion, that offer them career opportunities on honorable terms.’

The Curierul Naţional opened with an extensive article entitled ‘Gas Stations destroy our cars on our money’ in which we read that: The carriers seized the Consumer Protection on the poor quality fuel, which deteriorated the mechanical components of the motor vehicles, as revealed by numerous complaints.

‘Once the fuel prices in Romania are similar to the one in the European Union countries the quality should be the same too’, the Romanian Federation of Transport Operators, quoted by the Curierul Naţional.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University