In a lecture to the University of Craiova on Friday, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said that the real challenge for Romania amidst a changing strategic outline of Europe is how to turn its immense strategic relevance into economic dividends and make the leap forward toward a prosperous country, so that people no longer choose to leave the country in droves.
"This is a moment of immense transformation at the global level, at the European level. (...) The sad reality of the war started by Russia against Ukraine shows us how much we need to invest in defence and security and in an as strong as possible industrial base. This is a change in the strategic contours of Europe.(...) The question is and remains for Romania and for the countries on the eastern flank [of NATO] how to turn the immense strategic relevance of Romania into economic dividends, prosperity. This is the real challenge for Romania: a historic leap forward towards a developed economy, towards a prosperous country so that people no longer choose to leave it in droves," Geoana said in his speech called "Innovation, transformation and security - From a war economy to a new economic model."
The NATO official also mentioned the development gaps among Romania's regions, between large cities, on the one hand, and small towns and the countryside, on the other hand, the need for investment in small farms and peasant households, and also a low level of confidence of the Romanians, which he says is at an "alarming level," although Romania is a member state of NATO and the European Union, told Agerpres.
"We need an ecosystem in which Romanian and foreign companies coexist, a place under the sun closer to our strategic value. We are in the process of renegotiating the balances at the European level: strategically, economically, technologically and as and political power. King Mihai, in his speech before the Romanian Parliament at the age of 90 in 2011 -- I remember witnessing that historic speech -- spoke about the fact that agriculture is not an area of the past, but one of the future. And he was right. Romania can be an agro-industrial superpower and not just an agricultural one. Romania needs investment in small-scale farms and peasant households, both of which are struggling mightily."
After touring the Headquarters Multinational Division South East in Craiova and delivering his speech to the University of Craiova, Geoana went to the small town of Mischii, where he visited the ClusterPower Company, the builder of the largest data and artificial intelligence hub in the region.
"I will go to the small town where my father was born, to Mischii. Before we made a schedule for my visit, I did not know that the company I am visiting - Cluster Power -- a modern company with large databases -- is based on Viitorului Street in the small town of Mischii. Maybe you can find the way in which small communities can have a big future," said Geoana.
In Craiova on Friday, he also visited the Headquarters Multinational Division South East, which he called "an excellent model of interoperability at NATO level."
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