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Speech by Prime Minister Nicolae –Ionel Ciucă at the launch event of the "Va Urma" (To Be Continued) project, initiated by the Foreign Investors Council

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Nicolae –Ionel Ciucă: Ladies and gentlemen, Your Excellencies, dear guests,

The partnership between the Government of Romania and the Foreign Investors Council is a certainty, and my presence, today, at the event organised by you confirms the relationship of trust that we have.

After two year –pandemic and war at its borders that affects the economy at the global level, a collaboration based on openness between investors and government is very important to find together the best solutions for development.

Ever since taking office, we had permanent consultations with the business sector, we had meetings with the Foreign Investors Council and the others of other representative organizations, and the measures we have taken reflected this constant dialogue.

We have committed ourselves not to come up with new taxes and not to increase the existing ones, and we have kept our promise, although it was not an easy thing to do. We promised stability and predictability for investors and we kept our word

 We undertook to be the government that supports investments and allocated the largest amount for investments in the last 32 years; we have more than 90 billion lei allocated in the state budget. This policy assumed by the Government also benefited from the dynamics of foreign direct investments, with more than 21% in the first six months of this year. The number of companies with foreign capital newly established in Romania increased in the first six months of this year by 35%, compared to a similar period in 2021.

These are facts, I rejoice that we did well our job, that investors trust Romania and come to invest in Romania.

For the development and modernisation of the country, in the coming years, Romania has allocated a consistent package of financing, 100 billion euros, of which 90 billion euros, European money we will use until 2029 and which we hope to produce that 4, 5 times growth. It would be good to be five times or even more. The impact of these impressive amounts will be multiplied by the effects generated in the economy.

There are new challenges ahead that we need to face, most linked to energy resources. Romania has committed to making investments to become a pole of energy security in the region and is on the right track in this direction. At the same time, we support the green projects that we committed to through PNRR because we will overcome this energy crisis at some point, and the transition to climate neutrality is an objective that we must not abandon.

I welcome the interest of the FIC members and representatives in the economy of the future, in projects designed to ensure sustainable economic growth for our country. Last evening, I attended the Romania of the Future Forum, and I could see that we have potential that awaits to be capitalized by investors. I hope you will pay close attention to this request of focusing on the innovation sector in Romania.

New challenges added up which we need to cope with, most of them linked to energy. Energy transition and digital transformation are on the agenda of the Government. We encourage the development of a constructive dialogue with the business environment, with the academic environment, which will result in a long-term plan for Romania, until the year 2040, in line with the needs of the citizens and with the European desiderata.

To attain these objectives, we will launch an operational and efficient agency dedicated to foreign investments that will be the central point of communication with companies interested in investing in Romania. This agency will function at the Government being directly subordinated to the Prime Minister and in the next period it will go on the Government's table for approval, and then it will be made operational.

Accession to the Schengen area and the OECD will increase our country’s attractiveness and also the benefits of those who decided and will decide to invest here. We are committed to the reform process both through PNRR which you mentioned and through our objective and ambition to implement as soon as possible the OECD accession roadmap. There are country objectives for which we have structures that deal directly with all these technical aspects which are already functional and we have very good cooperation with the OECD technical staff.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I believe in dialogue and in the solutions found together, medium and long-term solutions, measures that will shape a country's project adjusted to the times we are living, the European and global challenges.

Thank you once again for the honest partnership we developed, and for supporting investments in Romania, although we know it is not always easy, I wish you good luck, as a better Romania for future generations will surely follow. Thank you. I look forward to attending the full session, including the debates you organized this afternoon.