More than a decade after the outbreak of the
\nworld economic crisis, which forced the world’s biggest economies and the
\nEuropean Union as a whole to test their reaction capacity and manage an
\nexceptional situation, the renowned American professor Jeffrey Sachs traveled to Bucharest at the invitation of the Romanian authorities, where he made an
\nX-ray of the world economy. In his opinion, these are some good times for the
\nworld economy, and a new crisis in the near future can only be generated by the
\npolitical leaderships of the world’s states and not for reasons that have to do
\nwith the economy: If there is a crisis coming, it’s
\nbecause of bad leadership. There’s no reason for a crisis right now. All of the
\nmajor regions, the US, Europe, China, India, are doing fine.<\/p>\n
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In other words, the world economy is looking well, but it
\nall depends on the decisions made by the world leaders. The US is in a
\nsituation in which its economy is growing but its population is not doing any
\nbetter. The population’s living standards have been dropping by the year,
\npeople are unhappy and life expectancy rates are also dropping, said professor
\nSachs, who is known for his criticism of Donald Trump. In his opinion, economic
\ncrises are the result of pursuing the wrong policies, and there is a clear
\ndanger of that happening at the moment. <\/p>\n
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On the other hand, says professor Sachs, there is a
\npositive and interesting global economic agenda that includes the use of new
\ntechnologies to create more prosperity, end poverty and create a world economy
\nbased on renewable energy. He says the GDP indicator no longer reflects
\naccurately what is happening in the economy and in society, such as air
\npollution and quality of life in general. Professor Sachs says economic growth
\ncan simply be confiscated by a handful of people or companies. He stresses that
\nwhat’s important is people’s lives and prosperity and urges countries to
\ncooperate and ask themselves what kind of world they want to live in and
\nwhether they want to live on a planet of peace, prosperity and sustainable
\ndevelopment. He says our political action must be centred on the world we wish
\nto create. <\/p>\n
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Considered one of the most important international experts
\nin the fields of economic development and poverty reduction, professor Sachs
\nhas urged Romania to plead for a strong European Union, to remain an open
\neconomy and to increase its investments and channel them into sustainable
\ndevelopment projects: Romania needs a strong public and
\nprivate investment effort, it needs that investment to be in the direction of
\nsustainable development, meaning renewable energy, advanced technologies,
\nmovement towards electric vehicle, for example, as a basic new area of
\npriority, sustainable infrastructure with a good connectivity, of course
\nmaintaining a long-term fiscal policy which enables this long-term investment.
\nIn today’s modern economy, the key to long-term development includes a good-skilled
\nworkforce, excellent universities, linkages between business and universities
\nand openness to foreign partners and foreign investors who helped to create
\ninternational markets. So from Romania’s point of view, in thinking about
\nregional development, I think it would be important to ask the questions about
\nregions, what kind of skilled development, what kind of infrastructure, what
\nkind of links with international markets, what kind of success in attracting
\nforeign investment partners and what should be done in public policy to ensure
\nthat all regions can benefit.<\/p>\n
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From the standpoint of business leaders in Romania, Romania’s economic growth model,
\nlargely based on consumption, is not quite appropriate. A recently-published
\nspecialized survey has shown that more than 90% of them share this opinion. As
\nfor Romanian companies, 85% of them see their investments plans in jeopardy,
\nbecause of fiscal uncertainty, according to the research carried by the Ernst&Young
\nRomania. <\/p>\n
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With details on that, here is the research coordinator with the
\naforementioned institution, Mihaela Matei: The main conclusion pertains to a general atmosphere of suspicion and
\nconcern on the part of organization leaders in Romania regarding this year’s
\neconomic growth, the growth model based on an increase in consumption and the
\ncountry strategy. In effect, 99% of the respondents would like the country
\nstrategy to be based on sustainable economic growth and would like the
\nstructural gaps between Romania and the Western European countries bridged <\/p>\n
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IMF experts have also come to Bucharest and
\nrecommended a balanced mix of monetary and fiscal policies and support for
\ninvestments, so that last year’s growth rhythm be maintained. The IMF
\nrepresentatives have underscored the relevance of having an improved budget
\ncollection system and of maintaining public spending within sustainable limits.
\nThe Romanian government estimates an 6.1 % economic growth rate in 2018, based
\non investments, mostly from European funds.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeffrey Sachs, on a visit to Bucharest, makes an X-ray of the world economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":155865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43939],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-155864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-future-starts-today"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n