Romanian economy going well, Erhard Busek says

The Romanian economy keeps on going well, even though the general political context is not a very favourable one, coordinator of the South-Eastern Europe Stability Pact Erhard Busek said on Thursday in opening remarks to the high-level investment forum called ‘Emergent Europe’ being held in the Austrian capital.

Even though there isn’t political stability in Romania, the economy is going to the right direction, the same as in Serbia, where the economy is doing well, even though the country is affected by political instability, said Busek, who made an analysis of the political impact on the macroeconomic developments in the emergent states.

He believes the key element to stability in Central and Eastern Europe remains economic growth as well as the maintenance of constant macroeconomic stability and said the region on the whole is going towards long-term positive development.

The expansion of the banking community, the expansion of the insurance companies’ activity represents an important element for the region, for the sustainability of the economic process and these have acquired an increasingly significant role, the OSCE official stressed.

Busek underscored the importance of a safer energy market in the region, which should be able to become an integral part of the European Union’s energy market and said this sector can have a positive impact on attracting the foreign direct investments. He added that, for the moment, there is still a big gap between the policies adopted in the Southeastern European countries in the energy sector and the expectations that the investors from the EU countries have.

The OSCE official believes that Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, from among the region’s countries, are going to the right direction, since the three states successfully implement their reform policies, but he cautioned that stability remains an important challenge.

To ensure the stability of the reform process remains the main challenge for Romania, he said, reminding that the governmental policies remain the only element likely to influence the investments by the setting up of a solid and stable macroeconomic framework.

Busek highlighted the positive developments of the credit ratings, a fact that has given confidence to investors, and stressed that from a level of 4.5 billion euros worth of direct investments in 2005, the 10 billion euros threshold was passed in 2006 by the Southeast European states.

Corruption, competition and human capital should stay the authorities’ main focus, Busek says, adding the governments should change their priorities radically, directing themselves to the attraction of new direct investments, the improvement of infrastructure and the cooperation with the EBRD, that should become a landmark as regards the encouragement of foreign investments. ROMPRES