Romania should be competitive in three sectors, namely goods, industrial products and services, but to get there, the priorities should be clearly established, declared Valentin Lazea, chief economist at the National Bank of Romania, on Friday."One is in which sectors we are already competitive and have an advantage and where we should strive to be competitive. We must emphasize European integration. This means that we must be a player within Europe that supplies and benefits from certain countries that are also useful to other European partners. And I would divide these sectors where we should become competitive into three parts: goods, industrial products and services," Lazea said at the "Smart Development, European Competitiveness" summit, organized by the Concordia Employers' Confederation, specifying that he speaks on his own behalf.The economist emphasized that, in terms of goods, we should be competitive in energy, food, and the export, but also the processing, of rare earths."Today we have an external deficit in both energy and food. I have no idea how we are doing with rare earths," said Valentin Lazea.Regarding the second component, industrial products, he mentioned that we are doing well in automobiles, we can do well in medicines, and we are nowhere in military equipment.On the services side, he added, we are already good at transportation and IT services, but things are not the same when it comes to tourism and cultural and recreational services."This is a wishlist. But, to get there, the Government must clearly establish its priorities, because until now everything has been a priority. In order not to upset anyone, two pieces of something have been allocated to each. And when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Let's make a list of priorities, saying 'no, we're sorry' to everyone else and upsetting everyone else. But who has the courage to say 'no' to everyone else? That's Romania's problem. Nobody has the courage to say 'no' to everyone who is not a priority," the economist pointed out, when asked which sectors we should focus on in the coming years.
President Nicușor Dan stated on Monday, November 10, that Romania meets all the conditions to become an innovation and production hub in the defense industry in Southeast Europe. “Romania meets all the conditions to become an innovation and production hub in the defense industry in Southeast Europe. Why? First of all, because it has a […]
Officials in the mountain resort town of Râșnov, central Romania, have issued an urban planning certificate for the transformation of a Boeing 737 airplane into a premium accommodation unit. The plane will be placed near the famous Bran Castle, and organizers expect it to become a tourist attraction. “The project is located in the Pănicel […]
Traffic (Jaful Secolului), a Romania-Belgium-Netherlands co-production directed by Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai from a screenplay by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, has received the award for best film at the Tertio Millennio International Film Festival in Rome. The jury of the festival noted in its motivation the film's "ability to combine formal rigor and human […]
The Romanian Justice Ministry advanced a legislative initiative according to which femicide could be punished with life imprisonment. The proposal comes after numerous women were killed this year by former partners, despite protection orders. The debate about femicide in Romania was brought back to the fore after another tragedy took place on Saturday, November 9, […]
Cultural center Apollo111, located in downtown Bucharest’s Universul Palace, has announced the program of arthouse films Apollo111 Cinema. The performance venue of Apollo 111 has been refurbished and endowed for professional film screenings. It will run a weekly program of contemporary and classic auteur films, meetings with filmmakers, and an experimental area, meant to “explore […]
Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi announced the official opening of its first own store in Romania, in Bucharest, inside the ParkLake shopping center, on the ground floor, on November 22. The new store will have a surface area of 150 square meters and will bring to the public the latest smartphones, accessories, and smart devices […]
