Romania, still attractive for investors
Romania is a fertile ground for investors but the lack of infrastructure and the instability of its legal and fiscal frameworks are hindering the countrys development
Daniela Budu, 03.04.2018, 13:37
The acute labor force crisis is one of the main impediments for the development of the companies activating in Romania and the unstable legislative framework is raising the country risk, an aspect carefully considered by investors whenever they try to enter a market.
However, Romania has resources for new projects, there are opportunities but the development pace must be stepped up. These are some of the conclusions drawn by representatives of the business environment and investors on the Romanian market who were attending an economic conference in Bucharest. According to the participants, the well-trained labour force is an advantage for those interested in Romania although the country’s infrastructure has not been sufficiently developed.
Some investors are convinced that if the issue of road and rail links between various country regions were solved Romania’s economic development would be way above the current one. Neither was the instability of the legal and fiscal frameworks left aside by the entrepreneurs who have also mentioned among the reasons of concern the uncertainties on Romania’s political stage.
Nevertheless Romania still remains attractive to investors, because it is a large market, says Sergiu Manea, chairman of the Council of Banking Employers in Romania: “All investors, either we like it or not, are trying to be close to their customers. The fact that we are a large market is an advantage and secondly I believe that a labour force with a certain degree of skill is another advantage for Romania. There are areas still uncovered by investors and this offers context and potential. If we were to look at the sectoral level there are still areas which haven’t discovered their potential yet.”
Stefan Radu Oprea, Minister for Business Environment, believes that the best solution to the labour force issue is to keep the most skilled workers in Romania. The minister has also added that higher pay isn’t enough to bring back home the Romanians who are working abroad and action has been taken to find solutions to a series of social aspects.
Among the other difficulties mentioned by the participants are those concerning the demographic evolution, the lack of support for small and medium sized companies presently facing competitiveness issues, the education system, which has failed to train students according to the needs of the labour market and the insufficient use of European funds.
Regarding the latter, field minister Rovana Plumb says that Romania’s objective is to raise its absorption degree to 100% by 2023, out of which 70% (accounting for 30 billion euros) by 2020. According to Plumb, Romania’s inability to absorb the EU money has shrunk its cumulated GDP by more than 13% in the past ten years.
