Prime Minister Calin Popescu – Tariceanu : ”I hope that today's meeting will be a good opportunity for all members of the business community to present their regional projects and the strategy to attract more rapidly the South East economies towards the European quality of the functional market economy.”

Address by the Prime Minister Calin Popescu – Tariceanu at the Conference Viena Economic Forum – Investment Opportunities in Romania

Distinguished president of Viena Economic Forum,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Excellencies,


It is a great pleasure to be together with you at this regional event that takes place under the aegis of the most prestigious organization, Viena Economic Forum.

I would like to welcome the participation of noteworthy representatives of the most important European companies and financial institutions partners or future economic partners of Romania .

I greet the presence at this forum of the vice – Prime Ministers and Ministers from the neighboring countries. Together with you, I address the warmest thanks to the leadership of the Viena Economic Forum for the chance it offered us to be together and to present the best practices in the management of the relation with the European investors and in building a new business climate in South Eastern Europe .

I want to particularly thank Mr. President Dr. Josef Taus , whose idea to bring the Forum closer to the region, to its problems and aspirations is worthy of our appreciation.


Ladies and gentlemen,

I believe such a forum was necessary in these days. Further to the debates that took place and to the events that happened in some of the EU countries lately, there have been raised many questions and there have been shaped many concerns at the Summer European Council.

The summit underlined a series of the actual difficulties of the European construction. I did not want to detail here, the conclusions of this European Council that you know. What seems important to me, from the perspective of the South Eastern European region, it is to respect the commitments of the European Union to sustain the economic reforms, the democratic reforms, according to the conclusions of the Councils from 2003 and the end of year 2004.  They clearly defined the European enlargement, the accession process. And I believe this is very important, so that the European perspective of our region should be maintained.

I would like to make a remark: as a consequence of what has been discussed these days at the European Council, it seems to me that sooner or later, there will be needed a consolidation at the level of EU, to which we are called to bring our contribution. These days, there has been asked the following question in Brussels : should EU remain a single market and only that? Or is it necessary for EU to go further, to consolidate its institutions so that, besides the common agricultural policy that is today the only common policy in this field, to have other policies too, in other common fields, at European level. I believe that this is the feeling of the majority of the EU member countries and especially of the majority of its citizens.

It is necessary a stronger Europe, that has the capacity to elaborate common policies  in the Foreign Affairs field, in the defense field, in social and economic field. In order to achieve it, it is necessary first of all a better communication with the citizens in order to explain them the European project./…/. I believe we have to underline the fact that EU relied on a fundamental principle, namely the principle of solidarity. And this principle allowed the reduction of the gaps between the EU member states. Relying upon this principle, many countries want to build EU further on. And I refer here to many of the contributor states. Surely in order to reach an agreement, it is necessary a compromise and unfortunately, at least 2 of the present countries, I refer to Great Britain and Netherlands have not shown their capacity and availability towards a compromise. We have to understand the political situations from these countries too, the internal political situations that determine the attitude and the decision of their leaders. With all these difficulties, I am convinced that EU has the necessary resources in order to find itself, to re -launch the European project, the project that all the South Eastern region of Europe needs.

As acceding country, Romania considers that maintaining the EU support in order to create a transparent business environment in the South Eastern region, based on the free market rules, but also on encouraging the foreign investments are the necessary components of the future European construction.

I am telling all these, being convinced that the European unity cannot represent only political convergence. It should reflect the expansion of the regional development chances, it should reflect in the expansion of markets and production capacities of the European companies in the whole Europe .

The expansion of activity of companies and financial institutions from Western and central Europe towards the East involves more responsibility from the Governments towards the citizens and towards the local development chances, involves economic and social stability.

On the other hand, the European Union needs the responsible contribution of its partners in order to consolidate the common policies at economic, social, security and foreign action level. We cannot ignore the capacity of our countries to create bridges of cooperation and economic expansion towards the regions neighboring the European Union. In this way, the South Eastern European states should not be regarded only as an anchor to expand the activity of Western companies. We can be an important access gateway to the Eastern neighborhood, a bridge for building some profitable relations with partners from the Black Sea and South Caucasus area.

It is not accidentally that at the Summit of Cooperation in South – Eastern Europe , I launched an appeal to all the Governments in the region to work closely and jointly. I remind at that time as cooperation priorities, the attraction of investments in the construction of pan European transport corridors that will cross the region, the creation of an energy community in South Eastern Europe, including the regional Exchange energy that could have its headquarter in Romania. Also, I underline once again the willingness of the Romanian Government to attract in our region the investments in competitive fields for the European Union: such as the IT field, the communications, car construction.


Ladies and gentlemen,

These are only few arguments that make me to firmly sustain that there  should be maintained on the European priorities agenda the political project dedicated to the rapprochement of the South Eastern Europe to the European Union, in accordance with the fulfillment of the convergence criteria that each candidate state should respect.

I am glad that such arguments have been heard in the debates within the Summer European Council from Brussels .

We have to admit that the business environment from the EU member states and the large companies have a merit in the promotion of such an inclusive and consistent approach of the EU members states. You, the representatives of the business environment understand better, more rapidly than the politicians the European opportunities.

This is why; I congratulate the leadership of Viena Economic Forum for the efforts to bring us together now, and to contribute to the consolidation of the joint vision on the European project.

As for us, Romania is together with Bulgaria on the final stage to cross until the EU accession on the 1st of January 2007 . We have a historical chance and we are confident that this project will be fulfilled. The accession of our countries will prove that the EU commitments have consistency and that our perseverance and rigor in the fulfillment of commitments is the only way to succeed.

The signature of the Accession Treaty at Luxembourg brought more energy to these efforts and it is an encouragement for all the acceding countries.

Over the last decade, we understood that the integration means not only a new political status. It means new chances for long term partnerships at economic level, more confidence to the investors, more economic and social stability.

We all need such a state of balance with Europe in this region; either it is about good governance, or business environment.

Over the last years, the geographic location was considered a key element in attracting the foreign investments and the access to regional and pan – European markets. Once with the preparation of Romania 's EU accession, all administrative, economic, social, political segments in Romania understood that the quality of the business environment, of the functioning of the institutions come first.

On January 1, 2007 , we will rank 7, as size in the Europe of 27 member states, with a population of about 20% of the new member states. We regard the accession not only through statistics, but also through the quality of our contribution to the European Union.

The first results of the actual Government demonstrate that an inspired and courageous decision can bear excellent economic results, reflected in the increase of the business environment's competition and attractiveness.

I would like to mention some of our directions of action.

We have succeeded to create solid connections between the monetary and fiscal policy in order to reduce the inflation that will reach in 2005 the smallest level after 1989.

The new fiscal philosophy includes the implementation of the 16% flat tax. We have introduced the ordering and the attentive pursuit of the regulatory area of competition; in order reflect more efficiently the commitments undertaken during the accession negotiations. We will have very soon a new labor code, as a result of the negotiations between the social partners, the employers and trade unions and that will make the labor market flexible in a considerable way.

We pay more attention to the facilitation of dialogue and cooperation between the local authorities and the foreign investors for the success of some projects that can create new jobs and can raise the development level of the local communities.

We have accelerated the privatization in the banking area and we have very good perspectives for the privatization of the Romanian Commercial Bank to be finalized this year. This will be followed, very soon, by the privatization of the Romanian Saving Bank (CEC).

Regarding these privatizations, the list is very impressive and contains banking societies from Germany , France , Italy , Austria , Hungary . This list demonstrates the attractiveness of a healthy economy and I hope that this trend will expand also in other areas of the economy.

Thus, we intend to accelerate during this year and 2006 the privatization of the public utilities and the companies that are in the portfolio of the Office of State Holdings and Privatization in Industry, as well as in the portfolio of the Authority for State Assets Recovery.

The elimination of the corruption, discriminatory practices and administrative abuses are priorities of the actual Government and I believe that the reforms that we undertake in the field of the Judiciary System will be convincing.

The new legislative framework that we proposed and for which the Government has assumed the responsibility in front of the Parliament will bring a major stability for the judicial act. It is obvious that an independent and efficient judiciary offers more confidence to the foreign partners.

Another aspect is the creation of an attractive portfolio for the competition areas of the Romanian economy.

This is not only an opportunity issue; it is an obligation that results from the assumption of the European objectives from Lisbon Agenda. I refer to the development in areas as communications and information technology, mechanical engineering, financial infrastructure, regional and energy market's development.

For the fast harmonization with the European exigencies, Romania needs diverse local partnerships with the business environment, in order to make the investments concerning the environment protection, the development of the small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as for the harmonious expansion of infrastructures towards the local communities.

Other priorities will be presented today, during the four round tables discussions of the Forum. I have requested to our Ministers to present concrete projects, as our approach for the energy development in the region, the future of the Nabucco project, the development of the road transport network on the pan-European corridors IV and IX and within the Danube Cooperation, the development of the services market and trans-frontier cooperation projects with European financing.

I hope that our experience will be improved through the practices that the governments from the region and the business environment representatives have developed to attract the foreign investments and   to create public-private partnerships.

I will give you an example of very good regional cooperation. We have an excellent relation with our neighbors from south; with Bulgaria with which we intend to develop regional cooperation projects, and we have an excellent cooperation with Hungary, and together we will organize for the first time in the region, a common meeting of these two governments in order to analyze and solve the problems that are on our agenda.

There has been an excellent political cooperation between Romania and Hungary for a long time. We can say that there are no disagreements on our common agenda. The purpose of the Government reunion is to approve the projects of common interest, especially at regional level, but also at bilateral level. The communities living in the border areas and our peoples will benefit from these projects. I believe that this example is a good one, which should be followed by other countries from the region too.

I would like to say that the practice that you want to implement in the region, the regional cooperation, is the great merit of the Viena Economic Forum. It is a very valuable environment to build the future partnerships and projects that all the states from the region can benefit from.  This Forum can consolidate and expand the trust in the successful projects from the region.

I would like to mention the OMV society as implicit promoter of the economic interests of the region. The active involvement in the Romanian economy and in the regional expansion projects become stronger arguments than the statistics that we frequently bring before the new investors.


Ladies and Gentlemen,

I express my hope that the meeting of today will be a good opportunity for all the members of the business community to present their regional projects and the strategy to faster attract the South Eastern economies to the European quality of the functional market economy.

As a conclusion, I want to thank Mrs. Ambassador Katia Georgieva for the efforts she made to organize this event, she is in charge with this project, and Mrs. Smaranda Enache, former Ambassador of Romania, as well as the team of the Minister of Economy and Commerce, Mr. Codrut Seres , for their contribution to the organization of this event.

Government of Romania - Press office - 20.06.2005