31 December, 2017

Romanians are preparing to celebrate the coming of the New Year.

Newsroom, 31.12.2017, 13:52

New Year’s Eve. Romanians are making last-minute preparations for the New
Year’s Eve party tonight. The majority are spending New Year’s in Romania, with
the mountain resorts in Prahova Valley such as Bran, Moeciu, Rasnov, Poiana
Brasov, Predeal and Sinaia being the most popular destinations. Bukovina and
Maramures are other destinations of choice for the winter holidays, as well as
cities such Sibiu, Oradea, Brasov and Alba Iulia. Town halls in these areas popular
with tourists are organising outdoor New Year’s Eve parties in the central
squares and on the ski slopes. In Bucharest, parties are held at the Parliament Palace, in the historical centre, in the largest squares and in
parks.

Flag. A Romanian flag measuring 100 metres in length is spread out
today across the railway bridge over the river Prut connecting Romania and the
Republic of Moldova. The residents of the village of Falciu, in Vaslui county,
thus hope to raise the awareness of the authorities in Bucharest and Chisinau
and persuade them to reopen the road and railway bridges over the river Prut
and set up a border crossing point. The flag will be spread out from the
Romanian side of the river and then taken over by people from the Republic of
Moldova. The organiser of the event is the unionist platform Action 2012. The
flag’s 100 m length symbolises the 100th anniversary of the Great
Union of 1918. The village of Falciu was one of the first places where a bridge
of flowers between Romania and the Republic of Moldova was created in the
spring of 1990.

Minimum pay rise. The minimum gross guaranteed pay in Romania is to go up from
1,450 lei to 1,900 lei per month beginning on January 1st, following
a government decision recently published in the Official Gazette. The amount
does not include bonuses and other types of extra payment. The increase in the
minimum gross salary accounts for a 31% rise compared with 2017 and is
influenced by shifting the payment of social security contributions from
employers to employees, which itself accounts for 22.75%. The government says
the impact of this measure on the real GDP stands at 0.6%, by stimulating jobs,
boosting the employee’s purchasing power and reducing illegal employment.

Handball. The Romanian men’s handball side
ranked third at the Yellow Cup tournament in Winterthur, Switzerland, after
beating Serbia 28-21 on Saturday night in the third-place match. Russia won the
title, defeating Switzerland in the final, 30-29. The Romanian players will
immediately start training for the Carpati Trophy which begins on the 5th
of January. Portugal, Tunisia and Bahrain are also taking part. Romania are
preparing for the first round of the preliminary games ahead of the 2019 World
Championships, games held between the 11th and the 13th
of January in Bolzano, Italy, and where they will face Ukraine and the Faeroe
Islands. Only the winners of the six preliminary groups qualify for the
championship play-offs in June 2018.

Tennis. Several Romanian
tennis players are taking party in the Shenzhen tournament in
China, worth almost 630,000 dollars in prize money and which began on the 31st
of December. In the singles, Irina Begu has today defeated the Chinese player Fangzhou Liu in the opening
round. Also today, Monica Niculescu has been eliminated by Arina Sabalenka of
Belarus.In the doubles, Irina Begu and Simona Halep have today reached
the quarterfinals after defeating the all Chinese pair Xinyun Han and Chen
Liang. Simona Halep, who is world no. 1, will play her opening singles match
against the American player Nicole Gibbs. Mihaela Buzărnescu, who had a great season in 2017 to go up almost 500
places in the world rankings, will face Maria Sharapova, while Ana Bogdan plays
against Camila Giorgi. Simona Halep is seeded first at this tournament, which
she won in 2015. She must win the title to secure her no. 1 world ranking.