September 24, 2023 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 24.09.2023, 18:41
SHOW- More than 50,000 people participated in the 8th edition of the international 3D video mapping competition “iMapp Bucharest – Winners League” held on Saturday evening in Romanias capital city. Artist Julia Shamsheieva of Ukraine was the winner of this year’s edition. The jury was made up by important international specialists in audiovisual arts. The official ambassador of iMapp Bucharest, the renowned international artist Jean-Michel Jarre, was in Bucharest to hand over the trophy.
UNESCO – The Ţara Hategului Geopark in eastern Romania retains its UNESCO recognition until the next evaluation that will take place in 2026. The constant revalidation of geoparks monitors the extent to which they comply with UNESCO standards, as well as the progress they make between evaluations. Among the criteria pursued are the preservation of the geological, natural and cultural heritage, but also the management and involvement of local communities in the sustainable development of the territory. Romania currently has two UNESCO geoparks, after Buzău County was accepted in the international network last year.
FISCAL MEASURES – The Bucharest government will set, in the upcoming days, the final form of the package of fiscal measures for which it plans to take responsibility in Parliament. On Monday, a new meeting of the Economic and Social Council is scheduled, where talks between the executive and the social partners on the topic of fiscal reform will be held. A series of provisions in the new fiscal bill are contested both by trade unions and employers organizations. Criticisms focused, among other things, on the provision that allows employers to offer money instead of meal vouchers or holiday vouchers, while the Council of Foreign Investors claims that the planned taxation of turnover creates the prerequisite of unfair competition.
CORRUPTION – Dumitru Buzatu, one of the oldest and most influential leaders of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) is under preventive arrest for 30 days, as of Saturday, in a case in which he is accused of bribery. President of the Vaslui County Council (east) and leader of the PSD organization in the county, Dumitru Buzatu had been detained by anti-graft prosecutors for receiving a 250 thousand euro bribe to favor a company to obtain a contract. He was a parliamentarian from 1992 until 2012 and was part of the circles of former head of the PSD, Liviu Dragnea, convicted a few years ago. After the arrest Dumitru Buzatu was expelled from the PSD.
IMF – An International Monetary Fund mission will travel to Bucharest on Monday to assess, until October 4, the Romanian economy. The IMF experts will discuss with the Romanian authorities about economic policies and the latest developments in the field and will have meetings with representatives of the private sector and non-governmental organizations. At the end of the visit to Romania, it is expected that the international experts will present the conclusions in a press conference.
COMPETITION – An electric car built by a team of students and professors from Cluj-Napoca (north-west) will participate, for the first time, in the most important profile competition in the world, organized in Australia. The event will start next month, on October 22, and will last seven days. The three-wheeled vehicle will be piloted by six students, one at a time, for two hours each. They will cover, in total, more than 3,000 kilometers in difficult conditions, in the desert. The solar vehicle is the third prototype built at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. It is extremely light, is made of carbon fiber and weighs about 200 kilograms. (EE)
