American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

On December 3m the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) has organized a roundtable on Labor Competitiveness in Romania. The event was attended by Paul Pacuraru, Minister of Labor, Family and Equal Opportunities, Cristian Adomnitei, Minister of Education, Research and Youth and Rãsvan Orãºanu, State Councelor within the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, as well as representatives of large employers, from among AmCham members.

AmCham Romania has initiated this debate following the necessity for a new aproach at the level of labor force policies, and for implementing a strategy for consolidating the labor market so as to ensure Romania’s economic growth at a maximum level.

All parties have agreed on the collaboration between authorities and the business community to limit the constraints that the Labor Market is faced with for a while now. To this end, it was agree to set up a working group, with representatives from the responsible Ministries and other authorities, business environment, and NGOs, in order to identify and facilitate curriculum changes, create a mechanism for correlating the specializations provided by the educational system with the employeers’ needs, as well as the evaluation of the recorded progress.

AmCham’s representatives have launched discussions on concrete aspects such as legislation, work force costs, the necesssity to update the educational curriculum so that it matches the present reality in Romania, business associations’ representativity, as well as working regulations. The measures proposed by AmCham Romania, through its Committee on Labor and Human Resources, coordonated by Cãlin Drãgan, target re-establishing a balance between the active and passive workforce, preventing the massive migration that is currently estimated at 20% of the labor force, correlating the specializations offered by the educational system with the demands on the labor market, as well as adapting the labor legislation with the requirements of a market economy.

Speaking about the strategy of the Ministry of Labor, Family and Equal Opportunities to balance the situation on the labor market, Minister Paul Pacuraru emphasized that Romania finds itself only at the beginning of such a crisis which is likely to deepen considering the demographic downsizes Romania faces. At this stage, the implication of the business community to structurally communicate their industries workforce needs is more than welcome. Currently, the Ministry, through the National Agency for Labour Force Employment conducts a survey to evaluate the deficit of the labor market at county lavels, in order to have a clear picture of the situation.

Present in the debate, Cristian Adomniþei, Minister of Education, Research and Youth has invited the participants to use the existing platforms offered by the Ministry through the Sectorial Commissions, organized at county level, and the Regional Committees, which analyze and submit to the Government’s approval the educational plan and specializations’ structure. As for the higher education, companies have been encouraged to develop partnerships with Universities, by way of creating postgraduates programs or internships, which will contribute to a proper training and to meeting employers’ requirements. The Ministry’s concrete contribution in this direction will be favoring two main domains in the coming years: technical and sciences. Also, the Minister of Education has announced the launching for public debate of the Package of Legislation regarding Education, and expressed the Ministry’s openness to receiving observations from the business community.

The representative of the Prime-Minister’s Cabinet has informed the particinants on the full support of the Romanian Government to the discussed issues, and to the consultation of the business environment in order to harmonize the educational specializations with the industry needs, as well as to create new ones.

In conclusion, Radu Enache, AmCham Romania President, emphasized that an imediate implementation of some measures for reducing the crisis experienced at the level of the labor market, is vital for continuting the economic growth of our country. AmCham Romania will continue to support the efforts for maintaining the work force a competitive advantage for Romania in the region, in view of attracting foreign investments.”