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PM Ciolacu: Cutting mark-ups on basic food products is a matter of utmost urgency.
During the first meeting of the recently sworn-in government on Thursday, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that passing a scheme to cut mark-ups on basic food products is a matter of utmost urgency, told Agerpres.
"A scheme to reduce mark-ups on a number of staple food products across the chain, right down to the shelf is a matter of utmost urgency. The effect of applying this measure is to lower the prices for a few vital foods in any household. I want to discuss this scheme with the big retailers, producers as well as distributors. We have to agree on a common effort, so that Romanians feel a significant help for their family budget. It is a mandatory gesture towards all the people who put up with the effects of high inflation in the last year. Now, it is important to bring inflation to a single digit as quickly as we can, but it is equally important to have more food produced in Romania in the stores," said Ciolacu.
He also unveiled other projects that the government is going to carry through.
"At the same time, I would like to prepare the rapid launch of some - from my point of view - essential projects: supporting food processing, an aide scheme for the construction materials industry and the introduction of green energy in agricultural farms. It seems that we do not have much after a long time of hesitation; it's time for people to see that we immediately come up with effective solutions and that we execute them, as they say, by the book. That's the only way the economy and the population will truly feel clear change and concrete results," said Ciolacu.
He added that "there will be some hard months of work, effort and tension" at the government.
"I am here, together with my colleagues, to make sure that the government of Romania will have some hard months of work, effort, and tension, and also solutions in the face of complicated challenges. That is what the governing agenda pledged today before Parliament and before Romanians compels us to do. We have an articulated plan, we have a vision for the nation; it is an agenda with objectives that have to be achieved quickly. That is why it is essential to work as a team and I want to be very clear from the very beginning: this is the government of Romania, not of the Social Democratic Party, not of the National Liberal Party. We are all colleagues, we have no other option but to help each other, because we will share both the successes, and especially the eventual failures," said Ciolacu.
