“Romania is the country where I want to live, work, and raise my children, the country where I want to return,” is the vision of the “Competitive Romania” country project presented by President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, and Romania’s National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu on Tuesday, July 7.

Experts from the Government, Presidency, Romania’s National Bank and Romanian Academy have worked on this project which aims to help Romania reach an economic growth of 5% per year so that by 2020 the country’s GDP per capita reaches 70% of the EU average. In 2015, Romania’s GDP per capita was 57% of the EU average.

The project should include a set of 90 measures focused on 41 priorities identified in 16 sectors, which would require a budgetary effort of some EUR 16.9 billion over five years. The targeted areas include education, health, birth rate, diaspora, agriculture, creative sectors, IT&C, EU funds, capital markets, direct investments, as well as infrastructure, cadaster, reducing bureaucracy, public purchases, research and development, and energy efficiency.

However, the project’s presentation document the Government releases yesterday includes only general statements and no concrete actions. The 90 measures haven’t been included in the document.

“The final product will be the result of profound consultation and collaboration with all sectors (government, non-government, private), which will take place in July-September 2016, and will result in a political agreement on Romania’s competitiveness strategy,” the document states.

Moreover, the officials’ speeches didn’t reveal any concrete plans either and mostly focused on the same general principles. “It’s important to think in perspective and do on the short term what we think can be sustainable in the long term,” said President Klaus Iohannis, who underlined the importance of long-term responsible strategies as opposed to short-term electoral measures. The President’s speech (in Romanian) is available here.

Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said that a political agreement was needed to support this multi-annual competitiveness strategy beyond election cycles. “What are the next steps that we propose? We want, first, a final document that reflects the will and interests of Romanians and Romania in the medium and long term, a set of priorities on which to reach consensus, so that their enforcement is not affected by electoral cycles. We certainly need a political agreement for Romania's competitiveness strategy.” The PM’s full statement (in English) is available here.

Romania’s National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu said this project was part of a broader national durable development strategy and that, in order to turn into a viable one, it needed a large political consensus. However, he pointed out that this project should take into account the real potential of the Romanian economy and that not all economic growth brings development on the long term.

“Although it may seem a paradox, it’s preferable to have a moderate economic growth – for example 3.5% - over many years than have spectacular temporary hikes followed by just as ample corrections,” Isarescu said. His full speech (in Romanian) is available here.

His view is rather different compared to that in the document, which aims for a 5% economic growth per year in the next five years.

However, the project’s mission is clearly stated at the end of the document presented yesterday: “Let’s bring Romania to its true development potential.”

The Competitive Romania country project presentation document (in Romanian) can be found here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: gov.ro)