March 17, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 17.03.2017, 20:13
VISIT The head of the IMF mission for Romania, Reza Baqir presented in Bucharest on Friday the conclusions over the country’s economic developments. According to him the successive cuts in taxes and duties and the pay raises exceeding productivity start threatening the accomplishments of the past years hindering the potential growth of the Romanian economy. Baqir went on to say the IMF forecast a budget deficit of 3.7% for this year and 3.9% for 2018. The IMF delegation’s agenda included meetings with the country’s President and Prime Minister, Klaus Iohannis and Sorin Grindeanu respectively. Romania doesn’t run an agreement with the IMF presently but it is having periodical consultations with its representatives.
MEASURE Collective labour agreements are to become compulsory both in state-owned and private institutions in Romania, the country’s Minister for Public Consultations and Social Dialogue, Gabriel Petrea said on Friday. According to him, the measure will be included in the new Law on Social Dialogue to be put up for debates shortly after the law on unitary payment has come into effect. There is a request from all representative trade unions nationwide and we have to create a system of protecting the employees so that their rights may be observed, Petrea said. In another development he stood for the registration of the NGOs with the National Trade Registry and not with the courts as they are under the present legislation. The minister says that such a measure would ease the setting up of these organisations and streamline their activity.
TALKS Igor Dodon, the pro-Russian president of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country held talks in Moscow on Friday with president Vladimir Putin of Russia; high on the agenda were economic cooperation and regional developments. This is Dodon’s second visit to Moscow in less than three months during which he attended a business forum and also met the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. Pundits quoted by Radio Romania correspondents in Chisinau said the visit’s purpose seems to be exclussively electoral; Dodon’s socialists are seeking Russian support for the upcoming Parliamentary election next year. In January Dodon said in Moscow that he considered denouncing the association agreement with the EU and strengthening relations with the Eurasian Economic Union; he also sees the federalisation of the Republic of Moldova as a solution for instating peace in the breakaway pro-Russia region of Transdniester.
FUNDS Romania can absorb some 250 million euros worth of funds for the modernization of 280 hospitals and healthcare units, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu has said during her latest visit to Bucharest. The funds are mainly aimed at rehabilitating and expanding 42 county hospitals. The goal is to help the population in rural areas get direct access to quality healthcare services.
