The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) emphasizes the need for a coherent, long-term investment plan, built on sustainable basis and visionary policies, in order to boost Romania’s economic growth potential, without affecting the macroeconomic balance.
“Time has come for a shift in approaching economic growth, in the sense of paying more attention to the qualitative approach, rather than quantitative, in order to reflect how citizens and businesses experience economic development. Nowadays, the quality of life, the purchasing power, the quality of infrastructures and the public services are becoming more important as expression of welfare in an economy,” declared Anda Todor, AmCham Romania President.
According to the report Investment –the Column for Romania’s Sustainable Economic Growth, elaborated by experts within AmCham Romania’s community, in order to transfer welfare to the citizens’ level, public and private investments are needed, through an accelerated absorption of EU funds, FDI inflows, capital market development, by stimulating capital supply and demand.
“Our recommendation is elaborating and endorsing a National Investment Plan, following the model of the Investment Plan for Europe, launched by the EU Commission in 2014. Such plan, should include, similarly to the European one, a pillar for the establishment and financing of strategic investments for Romania, especially from the public sector. The National Investments Plan would be worth of the Centennial agenda, and a great project Romania could undertake before its EU Council Presidency mandate in 2019” said Daniela Nemoianu, AmCham Romania Vice-President, highlighting the report’s conclusions.
The report outlines the necessary conditions for investments with long-term impact, in the context of the accelerated global competition for capital, and identifies the sectors with high potential for investments that Romania should set as priorities for development.
“Ensuring predictability and transparency of the legislative and fiscal framework, special measures for the modernization and development of critical infrastructure, advanced and calibrated economic policies to narrow the gap between regions and capitalize on domestic capital are among the prerequisites that can determine the evolution of the Romanian economy,” indicated Radu Florescu, AmCham Romania Vice-President.
Concerning the policies designed to encourage investment, the AmCham Romania report emphasis the need for such policies to pay particular attention to increasing the chances that capital supply will meet capital demand in an efficient manner, which could include improving the incentives for a more direct, yet sustainable risk-taking, both for those who have savings or capital to invest.
“We believe that it is important to incentivize long-term savings as it contributes to ensuring the financial protection of individuals and their families, introducing new forms of financial intermediation, in addition to intensified financial education efforts, a chapter where the Romanian population is unfortunately still deficient compared to the countries of the European Union”, concluded Ciprian Lăduncă, AmCham Romania Treasurer, outlining the report’s recommendations regarding the capital market development.
With this report that proposes a conceptual framework for addressing investments, AmCham Romania aims to bring the topic into the public debate on economic issues, as without a coherent investment process there can be no sustainable economic growth for Romania and Romanians.
