Dragos Bucurenci, a former civic activist involved in green projects and now director of external affairs at Philip Morris Romania, argues that the global tobacco company he represents has a solution to address Romania's rampant smoking rate while keeping the tobacco industry thriving as well.

"Romania is one of the few EU countries where we see an increase in smoking prevalence, as measured by the Eurobarometer, by two percentage points in 2020 compared to 2017. We are one of the four EU member states in this situation. We believe that smokers deserve a pragmatic solution and solutions to keep them away from cigarettes, and today such solutions exist. Many people are not yet aware of what is really harmful in cigarette smoke," he said, continuing the rhetoric about the benefits of the heated tobacco, Bursa.ro reported.

He also complained about Romanian farmers no longer being interested in cultivating tobacco.

Philip Morris Romania also unveiled a report on the company's impact on the national economy, supervised by economist Laurian Lungu. The impact was estimated at RON 4.4 bln (EUR 0.88 bln), or 0.42% of GDP.

The effect on the economy increased significantly in the case of PMI, compared to 2016, before the start of the USD 500 mln investments in the company's factory located in Otopeni.

Laurian Lungu explained that the impact of the value-added generated by PMI was estimated through a standard procedure, which aims to quantify three types of expenses incurred by the company - the direct impact (which includes salaries, taxes and profits generated, and the indirect impact (which estimates the effects in the supply chain of PMI, as a result of the company's activities) and the induced effect, which quantifies the broader impact on the economy, determined by the spending of salaries, both by PMI employees and by employees of companies in the supply chain in other sectors, such as trade or services.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Philip Morris)