On September 28, AmCham was honored welcome high-level U.S. & Romanian officials and business leaders for a policy-industry dialogue on the future of economic bilateral relations and next steps for tapping into the opportunities provided by the solid cooperation in the defense area.
Here's a selection of key messages shared during the conference.
Representatives of both administrations reiterated their strong support for intensified investment and trade exchanges.
David Muniz, Charge D’Affaires, U.S. Embassy: “The United States continues to see in Romania one of Eastern Europe’s most promising markets for U.S. trade and investment.” >> full statement here.
Alina Gorghiu, Acting President of the Senate: “We need such events to demonstrate how the Romanian -US friendship and cooperation represent an investment in our future. >> full statement here.
Don Graves, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of Commerce: “Over the past 25 years, the primary focus of the Strategic Partnership has been national security and defense. As we continue our work together to address common threats and challenges, strengthening the U.S.-Romania economic relationship is the natural and important next step”. >> full statement: https://www.commerce.gov/news/speeches/2022/09/remarks-deputy-secretary-commerce-don-graves-amcham-romania-celebration
Sorin Grindeanu, Deputy Prime Minister, Romanian Government: “We encourage the development of this constructive dialogue with the business and academic communities, which will result in a long-term plan for Romania, in line with citizen’s expectations and European goals.”
Jose Fernandez, Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment: „The United States and Romania have benefitted from decades of close defense and security cooperation, the foundation of our bilateral relationship. We need to build on this foundation by expanding and deepening our bilateral economic and commercial partnership. As business and government leaders, we have an important role to play in ensuring that our economies create jobs and foster innovation.” >> full statement here.
Mircea Geaonă, NATO Deputy Secretary: „We live the best year in the history of Romanian-U.S. Strategic Partnership, and will not stop here. The next stage will prioritze innovation, bright ideas and will bring together our communities. The best is yet to come. >> full statement here.
During the B2G dialogue session, top executives of leading U.S. based companies in Romania, shared their success in Romania so far and the challenges that need to be addressed in order to expand their investments. AmCham thanks members of the Cabinet for joining the discussion.
Florin Spătaru, Minister of Economy
- The Government is committed to support infrastructure development, as a cornerstone of the automotive industry, in line with the goals of the Transport Master Plan adopted earlier this year and the 5 billion EUR allocation for infrastructure projects throughout 2022.
- For the first time in 30 years, Romania has a state-aid scheme exclusively dedicated for the manufacturing industry. This is a starting point for driving industrial development and direct investments into areas that can turn into poles of competitiveness at national level. One of the Government’s priorities is to support a balanced development of economic sectors at national level, since there are a lot of regions with untapped competitive advantages due to poor economic development.
- The Circular Economy Strategy together with the minimis aid scheme will incentivize companies into developing pilot micro-projects for circular economy purposes, and strengthen the supply with critical raw materials as a key element of competitiveness.
Adrian Câciu, Minister of Finance
- The future is digital and we need to build this digital future together. In this spirit, the Ministry of Finance started a strong collaboration with the biggest IT&C developers to fulfill the ambitious goals for digitalization of the fiscal framework.
- We need to change our understanding of financing from a quantitative to a qualitative perspective. Financing is available but needs to be earmarked, targeted and used sustainably. We can have 100% allocation PIB for a sector, if we are not using the funds in a sustainable manner we will be only wasting them in the end.
- Romania has only one task in this historic context – attracting investments, while benefiting from unprecented funding opportunities. Investments are attacted based on respect, trust, consistency and stable government policies that grant confidence to investors.
Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Research, Innovation, Digitalization
- The partnership with the U.S. is the greatest chance for Romania’s development. The recipe for a successful economic development is the access to markets, a productive labor force and locally-nurtured innovation. All these components are linked with the Strategic Partnership that must extend beyond the security dimension both in the economic and the R&D areas.
- The success story of other countries for attracting investments lies not only in welcoming investors, but also reaching out to them. Romania has an Office for Science and Technology in Brussels (ROST) and one of the big plans of the Ministry is to create a second ROST office in Silicon Valley.
- IT&C specialists are Romania’s business card and one of its biggest assets that is acknowledged by companies that have recently announced important investments. Together with the Ministry of Finance, we will unlock the fiscal regime for R&D facilities in order to create a clear and attractive framework for investors, in addition with the operationalization of a solid Investment Agency.
Virgil Popescu, Minister of Energy
- An ambitious pool of funding opportunities can be accessed by companies in the upcoming period – two yearly calls under the Modernization Fund, an ongoing call for grants for energy efficiency of industrial facilities, and the upcoming launch of two calls for electrical batteries and solar panels, by the end of the year. In addition, the funding application framework in order to encourage companies to develop renewable energy projects from both the NRRP and the Modernization Fund.
- One of the top directions the Ministry wishes to promote is the advancement of self-consumption as a means to reduce costs and increase competitiveness of companies. The Ministry will launch separate calls for developing renewable energy for self-consumption and, respectively, renewable energy production, ensuring that there is sufficient financial envelope for both objectives.
Alexandru Rafila, Minister of Health
- The sustainability of the health system rests on nurturing a prevention culture and behaviour at the level of the society and reversing the prioritization of funding towards developing the ambulatory care facilities that can place prevention and early detection and access to care at the core of the system. This is the most cost-efficient mechanism in healthcare.
- Romania needs a health policy that is bounded by stability and a long-term commitment that transcends political cycles and Government changes. We need a medicines policy that encourages investments the development of the pharmaceutical industry and stimulates the production of medicines in the country, not only the distribution component.
- The Government committed to increase the PIB allocation for healthcare by 0.5% every year, however this is possible only in a context marked by stability and economic growth. The implementation of the National Cancer Plan needs such a sustainable financing calendar that is correlated with the current realities, together with infrastructure and human resources.
On the business side, questions on how to improve Romania’ atractiveness for more U.S. FDI were raised by:
- Josephine Payne - President Ford Otosan Craiova
- Marta Branska - CEO, IBM Romania
- Mihai Brana -CEO, Honeywell
- Alina Negru - General Director, Emerson
- Alexandra Munteanu - Country Manager Romania & Moldova, GE Healthcare
- Vasile Varavoi - CEO Cargill
- Sergiu Neguț -Co-Founder, EVP FintechOS
AmCham President Ionut Simion concluded by emphasizing the potential for boosting economic ties, the need for all public and private stakeholders to work together for taking the economic partnership at least to the level of the defense one, as prosperity is a pillar for security. >> full statement here.
Warm thanks to members supporting the event as sponsors: