Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Thursday that putting public servants on furlough is no longer a measure of interest given that the end of the state of emergency is closing in, and added that "a considerable part of the public sector is running full throttle" in the front-line of combating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"As we are nearing the end of the state of emergency, and as a large part of those who work in public institutions are in the front-line of the battle, such as the Health Ministry, (...) one cannot relinquish anyone in the scope of the Health Ministry, on the contrary, we need additional specialists. The Defense Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior, the Labor Ministry - which is involved in unfolding all the support programs for the furloughed personnel, and the other form of support for professionals. A considerable part of the public sector is running full throttle. We are anyway approaching the end of the extended state of emergency which will happen on May 15, and the relevant context is no longer there. We have mulled, looked at the matter and in the end, it is no longer topical," Ludovic Orban said.
Asked if the measure will be scrapped for good, he said: "It's no longer topical. We'll see."
Regarding the furlough measure, private sector employees included, the Prime Minister specified that funding is provided to cover incoming applications.
"With regard to the furlough measure, we have the necessary resources for the first period, they are pinpointed in the budget. Also, they will be partly supported from the EU budget, from the allocations for Romania. We have the resources and we are preparing the economic recovery measures, which will obviously have to take into account the relaxation plan, the steps for returning to normalcy, how they affect the various economic activities, we are preparing the support measures. (...) We will have the resources for active measures to support hiring by companies, and we will add extra resources from the budget. We are also considering the possibility to seek financial resources from institutional lenders such as the World Bank, EBRD (...) and we also have an agreement for supporting EU-funded projects before the expenditures are settled, with EBRD supporting us perform the payments before their settlement from the EU budget," Orban said.
He also explained that the government inventories all the resources it can resort to.
"We need to see what the best measures, the most appropriate instruments are, taking into account our objectives - namely resuming the economic activity in as many sectors as possible, even using the opportunities that have emerged to develop new businesses or the existing companies and also to try to offer as many jobs as possible, following the job loss and the fact that some of the out-of-country Romanians will need to find work," he said.
The PM made it clear that the governmental measures are aimed at speeding up the procedures on everything related to investment projects.
"We have issued an emergency ordinance to simplify procedures, which reduced deadlines, we are in a massive mobilization to be able to contract the works eligible for EU financing, either under the Large Infrastructure Operational Program, the Regional Operational Program, or other programs, so that we can launch a public investment plan for transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure. It's a well-known fact that Transgaz, Transelectrica, Romgaz, all the companies have very ambitious investment plans, so that we can maintain this economic development engine revved into action," Orban said.
This Thursday the head of the Executive, accompanied by the Defense and Health Ministers was on a working visit at the "Cantacuzino" National Medical-Military Research and Development Institute.
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