American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania), with the support of IBM Romania and bpv GRIGORESCU has organized a roundtable on “Labor Force in the New Economy” on July 16, 2010 to convey to the authorities its priorities for economic growth and ensuring availability of the qualified labor force, considering the decisive role of this constituency in attracting investments in Romania.

The event benefited of the participation of Minister of Labor, Family and Social Protection, Mihai Şeitan, and State Secretary Oana Badea of the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, along with representatives of the AmCham Romania members and Labor, Human Resources and Education Committee.

AmCham representatives called for increased flexibility, attractiveness and competitiveness of the labor market in Romania, through the revision of the labor legislation and measures which will allow the labor force to follow the dynamics of the economy.

Minister of Labor, Family and Social Protection, Mihai Şeitan welcomed AmCham’s recommendations and interest to be part in consultation process, and revelead that some measures are already on the Ministry’s agenda. Minister Şeitan emphasized that “the reform of the labor relations must be integrated in a set of administrative reforms, and has multiple components: revision of the legislation, already initiated and completion estimated for end of 2010, reform of the social assistance system which in its current form increased the passive labor force, as well as institutional restructuring in the sense of building flexibility, increase their capacity to adapt to the labor market dynamics and reduced bureaucracy.”

Recommendations regarding education were aimed at the need of cooperation between the educational and business systems, which would ensure the relevance of the studies with the demands of the labor market.
State Secretary Oana Badea expressed the openness for dialogue at the Ministry of Education, and identified the content of initial formation as one of the fundamental areas of reform in the education system in Romania. “If the education system succeeds in formulating properly the content of initial formation, a fundamental component of the reform will be solved” continued Mrs. Badea.

In AmCham’s opinion, a sound education system, connected to the economic and social realities will ensure a competitive human capital, able to deal with the changes of a changing economy and more sophisticated demands regarding performance and competence standards.

AmCham Romania, through the dedicated working group will continue to advance to the responsible authorities its recommendations regarding the labor market, human resources and education, important elements of the social-economic mix with a major impact on the overall welfare of Romanians.

At the same time AmCham Romania will militate for maintaining the human capital at the center of the country’s economic repositioning, along with firm measures for economic recovery, modernization of the fiscal system and a responsible behavior of decision makers.
In all the above, AmCham Romania members are available to support the authorities by providing their expertise accumulated in the local and international business environment.