Romania: Press review - January 19

Bucharest, Jan 19 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Tuesday carry reports on the rise in the number of newly-set up companies in the agricultural sector, the banking analysts' confidence that Romania could see an upgrading of the its credit ratings this year and redundancies planned to be made this year.

President of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) Crin Antonescu commented Liberal Radu Stroe's win of a seat in the Deputies' Chamber in Sunday's Bucharest constituency election by saying that President Traian Basescu and the ruling Democratic Liberal Party have lost the capital city, Jurnalul National reports.

Stroe polled 70.17 percent of the votes in Sunday's by-election, while Democratic Liberal contestant Honorius Prigoana got 29.83 percent of the votes.

One in ten companies set up last year targeted the agricultural sector, Ziarul financiar announces. The farming sector was the only one to post growth during a year of downturn, besides the energy sector - where the number of newly-set up firms advanced 3 percent - due to the fact that Romania has available 8 billion euros by 2013 in European Union money for rural development; such money can be drawn in by companies alone. Actually, this was a 140 percent rise on 2008, the daily comments.

Romania, on 1.5 billion euros, will build three times less kilometres of mountain motorway than other countries. The average 25.8 million euros for a kilometre of motorway, as resulted from the contract signed yesterday for the construction of the Comarnic-Brasov stretch, is the EU's biggest, Adevarul says.

The government will pay for the 55-km stretch of the motorway linking Comarnic to Brasov (central Romania) some 4.7 billion euros by the end of the contract only after the construction works are completed, i.e. in four years, the daily adds.

In other words, French-Greek consortium Vinci-Aktor will get no money from the government until the first car runs on the motorway, in 2015, the Bucharest-based papers point out.

Romania is not yet ready to take advantage of the start of the positive global developments, so that it stands all chances to miss being part of such a trend, X-Trade Brokers analysts argue. They say the drop in the public expenditure by personnel cuts, if not accompanied by moves meant to stimulate and support the business climate, does nothing but contribute to blocking the economy. 'The drop in the public expenditure by personnel cuts, if not accompanied by moves meant to stimulate and support the business climate and certain industries that have a strategic potential for development, will contribute to blocking the economy and by no means to emerging from the crisis', Curierul National quotes Victor Safta, director of X-Trade Brokers Romanian branch, as saying.

Nevertheless, the banking analysts are confident there will be an upgrading of the credit ratings somewhere in two years, according to Financiarul. Raiffeisen Bank chief economist Ionut Dumitru believes Romania deserves at least the rating upgrading. Once the domestic political crisis has been settled and the agreement with the IMF and the EU observed, such an upgrading of the outlook at least would be justified, Dumitru argued.

The Romanians based outside the country can send money directly home by the accounts opened by CEC Bank, that operates the service in partnership with specialised firm Transfer Rapid, Ziarul financiar announces, adding CEC Bank operates a 1,350-unit network across Romania.

Cartel Alfa union confederation leaders demand that the short-time working should be extended in order to curb the effects of the inevitable another 200,000 axed jobs from February 1. A Eurostat study made public on Monday confirms the difficult situation in Romania, which is ranked second in the European Union by the poverty risk, Romania libera reports.

'The number of 200,000 redundancies results from the announcements made by the employers in all fields. The jobless may come from the chemical industry, textile and leather industry, engineering and other downturn-hit sectors. There are companies that have barely survived up until now, by combining short-time working with various other forms of survival in 2009. The employers told us that if the short-time working is not extended, the only way they could solve the problem is to make redundancies', Cartel Alfa union leader Bogdan Hossu told Jurnalul National.

The deuterium depleted water or the so-called ‘live water' made in Ramnicu Valcea (central Romania) by the white collars of the National Research Institute for Cryogenic and Isotopic Technologies is something the people call downright ‘miraculous', Gandul says in an item on the remarkable curing properties of this Romanian invention. A physician doctor based in the western Timisoara city uses the water to treat cancer patients, seeking to double their life expectancy. The water is shipped mostly to Hungary, Germany, Japan, the United States and Turkey, the daily reports. AGERPRES

[www.romaniapress.com]