A new project that brings together Romanian Government officials, private sector and academia representatives, with support from the World Bank, was recently launched. The project, called Gateway Romania, is created and run by former Romanian diplomat and former Foreign Affairs Minister Mircea Geoana and Aspen Romania, whose founding member and president Geoana is.

“We’re convinced that Romania has an economic growth potential of at least 5 percent over at least a decade, and this is why we met today. With a 5 percent economic growth a year, Romania would jump from the 54th, to the 30th position. Romania would end up being the second largest economy after Poland. We would surpass Greece, the Czech Republic, even Hungary. The Romanian economy would thus be the EU’s 13th largest economy,” said Mircea Geoana, who is also a senator in the Romanian Parliament.

What will happen in the next ten years will define Romania for the next generations, Geoana believes.

The team behind Gateway Romania evaluated the country’s strength and weaknesses, and its potential. “The main problem is a historical one: the quality of its institutions. It is unacceptable for Romania to rank 120th in the world on transparency. This is not our place,” added Geoana. Infrastructure too is a weak point.

“Based on our evaluation, if only we tackled the logistics area, Romania could create 120,000 new jobs. The Constanta harbor only could generate 180,000 new jobs,” the senator explained. Geoana also sees the need for a development bank in Romania, to support small and medium enterprises.

The Gateway Romania project was launched on Tuesday, May 27, with an event which gathered high level officials in Romanian state institutions, the private sector, as well as foreign guests. Finance Minister Ioana Petrescu attended the event, and so did Florin Georgescu, the first vice-president of the Romanian Central Bank, Elisabetta Capannelli, World Bank Country Manager Romania, European Funds Minister Eugen Teodorovici, Tomas Spurny, CEOof Romania’s largest lender BCR, Ana Maria Mihăescu, IFC Chief of Mission in Romania, Wesley Clark, former chief of the NATO forces in Europe, and Frank G. Wisner, Ambasador, Foreign Affairs Advisor, Patton Boggs, among others.

A dedicated strategic unit, under the General Secretariat of the Romanian Government, was created to gather ideas from the public-private working group, tasked with creating strategic policy proposals, drafting action plans and designing specific measures, as well as promoting the Gateway Project.

editor@romania-insider.com