Eradicating poverty requires a smart use of resources, a superior capitalization on raw materials, gas, energy and human resources, but also an efficient and effective restructuring, which means adequate public policies, not "little trains," claims the president of the Smart Energy Association (AEI), Dumitru Chisalita.
"Eradicating poverty is not done with sudden increases in salaries and pensions (followed by an increase in taxes and fees), but with an intelligent use of resources, a superior capitalization on raw materials, gas, energy and human resources, and necessarily with an efficient and effective restructuring. This means adequate public policies, not "little trains," states the president of the AEI, quoted in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.
According to him, the states of the European Union find themselves in a situation of having lost the competition with other countries in the world, after the explosion of electricity and gas prices in 2021.
"Compared to the USA and China, energy prices in the EU were double during the crisis. Even after the price drop recorded during 2023-2024, prices in Europe remain the highest in the world. This situation can only be compensated by a restructuring and reduction of the waste of resources (financial, human, energy, materials, etc.). In other words, by an increase in resource productivity. Resource productivity is expressed by the amount of GDP (gross domestic product) per unit of material consumed. At the EU level, after the economic crisis of 2008 - 2010, there was a decoupling of GDP from the unit of material consumed on average, an aspect that determined a continuous increase in resource productivity. Romania is the only country in the EU where this total decoupling was not achieved," Dumitru Chisalita said.
At the same time, Romania had in 2022 a resource productivity of 0.52 euros per kilogram, almost 5 times below the EU average, of 2.42 euros/kg and 16 times lower than the country with the highest resource productivity (the lowest resource waste), according to Eurostat data, cited in the press release.
"With this level, we surpassed Bulgaria in 2021, until then in last place in the EU. What can be seen from this graph is that the richest countries are the countries that have the best use of resources (high added value is created with the same resource). And the countries with the greatest waste of resources are the poorest countries in the EU. In the last 25 years, Romania is the only country in the EU that has not had an increase in resource productivity. Basically, we have stagnated for 25 years, and GDP has increased, mainly due to population consumption, based on massive loans," the document also states.
In Romania's case, resource productivity fell sharply between 2002 and 2008, a period of uninterrupted economic growth, which suggests a development that placed little value on efficiency and the increase in the added value of resources, Eurostat data, cited in the press release, also show.
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