At his last mission in Romania Jeffrey Franks (in picture, right), the mission chief  for the country within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said he ended his mandate knowing he has achieved progress but also feeling sorry for having failed in some areas, like privatizations and naming private managers for state companies. He held his last press conference in Romania yesterday (Wednesday, May 9 ).

Franks will be replaced by Erik Jan de Vrijer, who already arrived in Romania for this review mission. Erick Jan de Vrijer, who was IMF’s Europe Department Assistant Director, will start on the new job this summer.

"I am happy many things have been done, but I know how many are still left to do. Despite reducing the vulnerabilities, challenges are not gone and reforms are still needed. For me it was an honor and a pleasure to work with Romania for the last three years and a half,”said Franks at his last press conference.

Franks visited Romania every quarter for the last three years to review the country's stand-by agreement with the financial institution. At his last visit, he reminded the macroeconomical stability that Romania has achieved, the increase in the country's Central Bank foreign exchange reserve and the cash buffer created at the Finance Ministry. However, progress was small on the absorbtion of European funding.

Under Franks’ supervision, Romania entered and closed a first stand-by agreement of some EUR 20 billion and signed a new one, for cautionary reasons. The IMF chief negotiator has gained constant public attention and has been frequently quoted in local and international media on various macro economic issues that were part of the deal with the IMF. Franks learned Romanian and made a habit out of reading quarterly conclusions at the end of missions in Romanian.

editor@romania-insider.com