BusinessMin Oprea: 2018 to be year of investments; SMEs affected by Romania's not being in Schengen area

This year will be one of the investments in Romania, and at the same time the local small and medium-sized enterprises are affected by the fact that they do not belong to the Schengen area, Minister for Business Milieu, Commerce and Entrepreneurship Stefan Radu Oprea told a Wednesday's specialist forum. 

"Romania's Government has announced this year will be one of investments. In the context of an economic growth of 7pct, a record in Europe and even in the world, last year, and with a tendency that is kept this year, we have a legislative framework which is altering. We have recently announced the Law on Public-Private Partnerships, which I know is an element of great interest for Italian companies, we have also announced the important projects we want to develop together in a public-private partnership. You have seen that the Procurement Law The public is changing to simplify a great deal the procedures that Italian companies are currently taking part in. In the structured and honest dialogue that we have with the business milieu a big problem emerged, namely the scarcity of the workforce. What can we do? Romania's Government has come up with a program of governance and a new economic model. We have proposed this model by raising salaries to make stable the skilled workforce in Romania," Oprea said. 

"What are the measures that we are proposing? Start-Up Nation is addressed both to those who are in Romania and to those who have gone to Italy and who, in my view, through the entrepreneurial spirit have taken the risk of leaving the country. They have learned a qualification, they have learned what it means to work in Italy, because the backbone of the industry is represented by the number and quality of small and medium-sized enterprises. At the Ministry for Business Milieu, Commerce and Entrepreneurship there is also Invest Romania. We are working in the Government of Romania to relaunch new pilot projects through which there is the possibility of subsidizing the firms that hire new workers, which is also valid for the Romanians in Italy and for Italian capital companies that are in Romania today. Here, we have a permanent dialogue with investors, and I want this to happen with Italian investors as well, the minister said. 

The Confindustria Romania Employers' Union is organizing on Wednesday the "Both Worlds 2018" Economic Forum under the motto "People & Work".