Romanian President Encourages Foreign Investors

Not long ago, the Council of Foreign Investors in Romania has presented the authorities with a plan for economic recovery. However, foreign investors don’t have great expectations because they are aware that “the authorities` lack of co-ordination is one of the main obstacles in the way of their suggestions”. The leaders of the big foreign companies that have invested in Romania mainly ask for subsidized loan facilities for small and medium sized enterprises and for the authorities to pay their debts to private companies.

Banker Dominic Bruynseels, a member of the Council of Investors, says: “As regards arrears, we are eager to make progress and some progress has indeed been reported. The state has already started to make substantial payments, for which we thank the government. This is a beginning, but there are still large sums of money to be paid, including VAT”.

Foreign investors also call for public investments to be directed mainly towards major infrastructure projects. President Traian Basescu has encouraged foreign investors to continue to invest and extend their investments in Romania and promised them that, starting with the first half of next year, solutions will be found for funding such big projects: “One of our priorities is to use the money from the European Investment Bank. This institution may finance projects worth almost one billion euros, this is the cheapest money on the market, cheaper than what we receive from the IMF, but because of the deficit conditions, the money could not be accessed”.

President Basescu also said that in 2011 the restructuring of the public system would continue, on the basis of qualitative criteria, by increasing the level of professional training of state employees and by reducing the red tape which exasperates foreign investors. He also mentioned the role of employers’ associations in reducing illegal employment and the consequent tax evasion. According to the Romanian president as many as 1.6 million Romanians are working illegally.
“Law infringement has turned into a sport for the business community, whether we speak about illegal employment or about failure to pay taxes,” President Basescu has also said.