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Nicolescu: Romania needs to restart the investment process
Romania needs to restart the investment process for the development of the economy, particularly the state investments that have been blocked in the last two years, but it also needs pragmatic measures aimed to speed up the absorption of the structural funds, said Ovidiu Nicolescu, the chairman of the National Council of the Private Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Romania, on Tuesday.
"Except for the first half of this year, the investments in Romania have dropped, both the domestic and foreign ones, both private and public. All those who have a little knowledge of economics understand that, during five years when investments drop, the period to follow will see problems with the resources, there will be problems with the assets, with the economic performance. That is why we consider that several measures must be taken in the period immediately ahead, among which the modification of the caps of the state aid for the firms", Nicolescu said.
According to him, it is only the big companies, the very big companies and possibly some medium-sized businesses that meet the state aid caps, while 99 percent of the Romanian firms are small ones or micro-businesses.
"We consider it is very important to let the state investments be carried on. A major problem in the last two years was that the investments from the state budget have been virtually blocked. They have been cut several times. An economy and infrastructure cannot develop without investments from the state sector. There is need to adopt pragmatic measures to speed up the absorption of the structural funds. We are seeing a blockage at this very moment. There is more than two billion euros that must be received by those who have commissioned funds, have exerted activities, there are documents approved, but there are no resources", the private SME body chief underscored.