The government has approved the legal framework for the establishment of development and investment sovereign wealth funds, which will be organized as joint-stock companies, under terms to be established separately under government decisions, and which will be managed in a dualistic system by a Supervisory Board and a Management Board. “Every sovereign wealth fund – as this is about an emergency ordinance to set the legal framework in place for the establishment of several sovereign wealth funds, on a case-by-case basis, (…) will provide Romania with cost-effective and sustainable investments in development areas, or areas that need development and investment,” Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici told a press conference at the Victoria Palace of Government on Thursday. The development and investment sovereign wealth funds will make a decisive contribution to the development of Romania’s economy by “providing an alternative source of funding for important investments in infrastructure, industry or capital markets,” the minister added. “These sovereign wealth funds will be organised as Romanian joint-stock companies, under organization and functioning terms to be established separately through government decisions. The funds will be managed in a dualistic system by a Supervisory Board and a Management Board, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 31/1990. The members of the Supervisory Board are appointed by the General Shareholders Meeting for a term of 5 years and must fulfill the following selection criteria: financial-banking expertise required for the fulfillment of the specific responsibilities of the sovereign wealth funds, experience in corporate management, professional integrity, good repute, knowledge, skills and experience appropriate to the complexity of the specific activity of sovereign wealth funds,” Teodorovici explained. The scope of these funds is not privatization, but financial investments in their own name and account, and developing and financing profitable and sustainable investment projects, by participation in public-private partnerships included, as well as managing their own financial assets with a view to making profit, the Finance Minister said. Teodorovici also mentioned several possible areas of activity for the future sovereign wealth funds: “Business financing at various development stages, including start-ups, financing Romanian companies of strategic importance and pursuing the energy strategy, investments in industry and infrastructure projects, increasing the competitiveness of the Romanian economy, stimulating innovation and new technologies, creating sustainable, geographically and economically sustainable jobs, developing long-term human and social capital and capital markets.” The FinMin also said that in the version adopted by the government, the Emergency Ordinance includes the requirement for the fund companies to comply with the rules of corporate governance. PM Dancila: We are discussing today a GEO draft on legal framework for setting up sovereign investment fund Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Thursday announced they are going to discuss an emergency ordinance draft regarding the legal framework needed for the setting up of a sovereign development and investment fund at the government meeting on Thursday. “We are discussing on Thursday an emergency ordinance draft meant to provide the general terms and conditions that a company set up under the Company Law no. 31/1990 needs to meet in order to be considered a sovereign development and investment fund. We need this financial instrument to support Romania’s economic development. A development model like this has been successfully implemented in other countries, with benefits on many levels, through profitable investments and backing of projects in priority fields,” stated Dancila, in the opening of the Government meeting. The head of the Executive added that the setting up of the sovereign investment and development funds takes into consideration “the creation of a financial investment instrument or financial intermediation instrument or participations, in profitable projects or companies, which is a segment still uncovered on the Romanian financial market, so as to, one the one hand, have the role of a multiplier in economy for a sustainable development and, on the other hand, to attract, mobilize the available financial resources in the real sector and, at the same time, to develop reasonable projects.” “This fund will support, through its activity such fields and development activities as: financing of Romanian companies of a strategic importance, investments in industry, investments in infrastructure, it will contribute to an increase in competitiveness of the Romanian economy, to the development of the energy strategy, capital markets. These are large projects that we can develop together with other institutional or private developers, including through the participation in public-private partnerships, as we committed ourselves to do under the governing programme,” said Dancila. According to the PM, the adoption of this GEO will provide a general framework and, then, a Government decision will follow to decide on the “actual terms and conditions for the organisation and functioning of the development and investments fund to be set up based on share companies under Law no. 31 /1990.”
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