American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

Bucharest - December 14, 2011: The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) launched the Romanian Competitiveness Report - Statistical Assessment and Executive Survey of Romanian Economic Policy in a public event on December 14, 2011 attended by President Traian Bãsescu, Ambassadors, AmCham members, representatives of the authorities.

The Report contains an assessment of main policy areas impacting doing business in Romania as well as a set of recommendations based on the assessment, statistical analysis and perception survey among leading CEOs of large companies and SMEs in Romania. The report is drawn upon a methodology used by other AmChams in Europe in elaborating similar reports.

“The report is not meant as a ranking exercise, which is relative in time and can be misleading. Although it does make comparisons, the report does so in order to understand better how Romania’s performance varies from its fellow European economies. It identifies the areas of possible advantage or disadvantage while warning that the advantages are only as good as the policies that generate them” stated Alexandra Gatej, AmCham Romania President.

The Romanian Competitiveness Report looks at six main following policy areas: general competitiveness indicators, public administration, legal framework, human resources, physical infrastructure, financial & monetary. The report’s overall indicators reveal 25 competitive advantages for Romania, 49 disadvantages and 22 neutral indicators, an outcome indicating that the country needs to improve its performance.

While the CEOs responses largely match the results of the statistical analysis expressing dissatisfaction with areas such as public administration or physical infrastructure, more than 50% of the respondents have at the same time indicated that their companies plan to expand capital investments in Romania and increase number of employees in the next years. Such decisions may be mainly motivated by local and export demand of their products and services.

AmCham’s policy recommendations for increasing country competitiveness include, among others:

• Use EU funding to develop physical infrastructure, doubled with private public partnerships, and strengthen the competitiveness of Romanian companies on the local and foreign markets.
• Enforce impact assessment for new regulations and policies to account for their effects on sustainable growth and on the stability of the business environment.
• Develop a comprehensive and coordinated plan to improve Romanian infrastructure towards EU standards of quality and coverage.
• Develop a clear energy strategy, invest in intelligent utility network infrastructure coordinated with the focus on increased renewable energy generation.
•  Increase transparency and accountability of the public administration and use of national public funds.
• Increase the quality and accountability of public service, and build administrative capacity at both central and local level.
•  Improve the structure and efficiency of government expenditures.
• Elaborate and enforce a coherent policy framework to support Romania’s standard of living and population growth in the context of the country’s aging population and its impact on real economy and financial sustainability.
• Offer incentives to keep the highly skilled specialists in the country and reverse the brain drain, building on the positive experience of the IT sector.
• Deeply reform the tax administration, modernize and simplify tax collection, reduce tax evasion, and reduce the taxpayer compliance burden.
•  Stimulate investments in key export industries and create incentive packages for local and foreign investors based on new technology implemented, number of jobs created, and high value added export capacity created.
•  Recognize and develop the capital markets as an important alternative source of capital, for both private and public borrowers.

AmCham Romania will advance the report to the main decision and policy makers trusting that they will use the findings and recommendations in shaping future policies for Romania’s economic stability and increasing competitiveness.


About AmCham Romania:

The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) is a leading professional business association having a significant contribution in the consultation process on legislation and norms impacting the business enviroment in Romania. Along its 18 years of activity, AmCham remained firmly engaged in facilitating an open dialogue between the authorities and the business community it represents. Our members’ expertise is offered to authorities through working groups dedicated working groups such as tax, healthcare, energy, competition, information and communications technology, labor market, capital markets, structural funds, public procurement and PPP, infrastructure and corporate governance.
AmCham Romania represents 300 members – U.S., international and local companies with total investments above 10 billion USD and more than 200.000 jobs created. AmCham Romania is affiliated to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce.

For more details please contact :
Andreea Roman – Communication Manager
E: aroman@amcham.ro T: 021 312 48 34