Romania: Press review - February 23
Feb 23, 2010

Romania: Press review - February 23.
Bucharest, Feb 23 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Tuesday give main coverage to the diverging views of the parliamentary parties on the principles that should guide the revision of the Constitution of Romania; the third and fourth disbursements of a stand-by loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reaching Romania today; promising financial prospects following the market release of the Dacia Duster automobile; Romanian IT specialists enjoying European prestige.


Cotidianul remarks that the first serious clash so far this year between the Power and the Opposition occurred on Monday. The diverging views over the revision of the Constitution triggered the first scandal and a first defeat of the ruling Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L). At a joint meeting of the standing bureaus of the two chamber of Parliament, the PD-L proposal that a board be set up to review the Constitution was rejected by the MPs of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD). PD-L officials would have liked the only amendment in the Constitution to concern a switch to a single-chamber parliament, while the Opposition was advocating a more thorough modification of the fundamental law, according to Adevarul, Romania libera and Jurnalul National.


Romania will receive today the money in the third and fourth disbursements of the stand-by loan from the IMF. The nearly 2.3 billion euros will allow the Government to cover part of its deficit and the National Bank of Romania (BNR) to back up the local currency. In order to receive the next disbursements, the IMF has asked the Romanian Government to cut public spending and boost tax collection. Moreover, the Romanian Government will have to meet its commitments to the pension law and fiscal responsibility.


Money.ro reports that the National Bank of Romania (BNR) no longer let banks take their money out of the country, having toughened the requirements that would allow banks to pull out money from Romania. BNR wants to require the foreign financial institutions operating in Romania to no longer be able to pull out their financing lines in the first five years after the amounts are included in equity. Director of the Supervision Department of the BNR Nicolae Cinteza is quoted as having recently said that the solvency rate indicating the solvency of the local banks is at a comfortable 10 percent.


Ziarul financiar notes that the Dacia Duster SUV, for which waiting lists have been drawn as for a Ferrari, will be officially presented in Geneva on March 2 and in Romania on March 6. Duster, the most touted model in the history of Dacia automobile maker, the company that last year secured more than 10 percent of Romania's exports, is expected to generate revenues of up to 1 billion euro to Dacia in 2010. The output of this SUV will exceed 60,000 units this year. One in four Dacia models to leave the factory this year will be a SUV.


Shares in the Proprietatea Fund, traded through classifieds, have appreciated 40 percent in value since early this year, according to estimates by Swedish East Capital, which has assets worth 3.3 billion euros under its trusteeship and investments in excess of 11 million euros in Proprietatea. Over the same period, the SIF securities gained between 25 and 30 percent in value, the business papers report.


Romania' steel output surged 86.2 percent this January from the similar month of the year before, to 275,000 tonnes, while the world's steel market advanced 25.5 percent, to 109 million tonnes, according to estimates of the World Steel Association cited by Romania's Tuesday dailies.

In January 2009, Romania's iron and steel industry put out 148,000 tonnes, while its December 2009 output was 270,000 tonnes.


Ziarul financiar carries the findings of a recent study conducted by the wage outsourcing and staff management service company PayLogic indicating that the number of employees working with private companies in January 2010 was 18 percent lower than in January 2009.

The staff decrease over the past year was nonetheless smaller that in 2008, when a similar PayLogic study revealed a 25-percent private staff cut.


Romania libera quotes Google Irealnd Vice Chairman John Herlihy as saying Romania is producing the world's best IT specialists and the European Union should lift the barriers to their freedom of movement so that they may be hired all over Europe. This statement came after a meeting of European Commissioner for Research and Innovation Maire Geoghegan-Quinn of Ireland and IT company executives from Google, Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett Packared and Boston Scientific. AGERPRES
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