30 September, 2015

News and Current Affairs

Newsroom, 30.09.2015, 11:59

Liviu Dragnea, the interim president of the Social Democratic Party, the main party of the ruling coalition in Bucharest, said that the government must spell out a serious analysis on the need for another accord with the IMF to be concluded. In turn, Vasile Blaga, the co-president of the National Liberal Party, the main party in opposition, believes that such a document is not absolutely necessary. The statements were made after Finance Minister, Eugen Orlando Teodorovici had announced that Romania would ask for another accord with the IMF to be concluded this year. Prime Minister Victor Ponta said it would be good for Romania to sign another accord with the IMF and a decision in this respect must be made after consultations with the political parties.

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has concluded his formal visit to the USA. He attended the UN Sustainable Development Summit focusing on the new Agenda for Sustainable Development of the world for the next 15 years. President Iohannis addressed the summit, delivering three speeches on the war on terror, the refugee crisis, fighting poverty and gender equality. The Romanian president also attended the summit on the fight against the terrorist Islamic State Organization at the invitation of US president Barack Obama and had talks with US vice president Joe Biden at the White House on the US-Romanian strategic partnership. Moreover, the Romanian president had numerous bilateral meetings and met representatives of the Romanian community in New York.

According to a report of the World Economic Forum, Romania ranks 53rd in the chart of the most competitive 140 states of the world. On a 1-7 scale, Romania got 4.32 points, as compared to 4.30 points last year. Switzerland comes first with 5.8 points, being followed by Singapore, the USA, Germany, Holland, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and Great Britain. Mauritania, Chad and Guinea come last in the chart. According to the report, Romania has low pointers for business sophistication, institutions and infrastructure. In exchange, Romania has a good position in terms of macroeconomic environment and the market size. The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 published by the World Economic Forum today assessed the competitiveness of 140 countries of the world on the basis of such criteria as government institutions and policies, the effectiveness of the labour market and financial markets.

In New York, Russia is today going to propose to the UN Security Council, focusing on the Syrian conflict, a draft resolution on ways of defeating the Islamic State Organization in Syria and Irak, FP reports. Washington and Moscow have divergent standpoints on the Syrian file; whereas the USA insists that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad should step down, Russia, an ally of Syria, along with Iran, considers cooperation with Bashar al-Assad the only viable solution to the Syrian conflict. US and Russian presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin respectively have however accepted the idea of cooperation to defeat the Islamic Jihad Organization and find a diplomatic way out of the civil war.

Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis continues to top the Romanians’ confidence chart, according to a sociological survey of the INSCOP Barometer commissioned by the paper Adevarul. So, 58,6% of the respondents say they have great and very great confidence in president Klaus Iohannis, as against 61.6% in July. President Iohannis is followed in the chart by the governor of the National Bank of Romania with 41.6%, Romania’s ambassador to the USA, George Maior with 29.7% and Prime Minister, Victor Ponta with 22.8%. Vasile Blaga, the co-president of the National Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu, the former leader of the National Liberal Party and Romania’s former president after December 1989, Ion Iliescu rank last in the confidence chart. The barometer survey commissioned by Adevarul was conducted by INSCOP Research over September 10-15th 2015. The survey included 1,085 people, the maximum data error being plus/minus 3% for a 95% confidence degree.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 1 seed is today taking on British Johanna Konta in the eighths finals of the Wuhan tournament in China, whose main favourite she is. In the previous round, Halep defeated Russian Anastasia Pavliucenkova; so, she boasts 40 victories, the largest number of victories on a hard court in the professional circuit this year. The Romanian is followed by Karolina Pliskova with 31 victories and Serena Williams with 30 victories.