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Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă:

Good afternoon,

President,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear guests,

I am glad to see each other at the beginning of this year, I wish you a New Year with good health, full of personal and professional achievements, and I confess that I want to continue our successful partnership in 2023 too.

The 25 years of activity in Romania of the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) is an important landmark, a stocktaking report but also a moment of shaping new projects for the future.

I have always appreciated that you are visionary, that you are drafting projects for the future and you are open to sharing experiences to take together the best decisions for Romania’s economy.

We are the country with the highest economic growth at the level of the Union, eight times from 2000 to 2022. This growth is also felt at the level of GDP per capita, which rose from 1,669 to 14,825 US dollars. We quickly recovered the economic gaps, and Romania was already, in 2021, at 74 percent of the European Union average, according to Eurostat, in the assessment of GDP per capita, expressed in purchasing power standard.

We maintain this dynamic and the World Bank's estimates confirm the prospect of constant economic growth until 2030. Romania has at its disposal more than 80 billion euros from European funds. Last year, we spoke about more than 90 billion euros – this year, we managed to draw more than 11 billion euros, so, we have the money to support this pace of development and modernization.

It is true that the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine affected and still strongly affect the global economy. This is why it is important to continue an open collaboration between the Government and the business sector in order to find the best solutions to the multiple crises we are going through. Furthermore, in this context, it is important to stand in solidarity, to demonstrate that we also care about those who cannot go through difficult situations alone. Only together, through collaboration and understanding, can we overcome these complicated times and bring prosperity to Romanians as well as to companies.

The measures taken by the Government, following the discussions held with you and other representatives of the business sector, have led to a record increase in foreign investments in our country last year. According to the official data of the BNR [the National Bank of Romania], the flow of foreign direct investments amounted to 9.4 billion euros in the first 10 months and will reach over 11 billion euros for the whole year 2022, by almost 2 billion euros more than the values recorded in 2008, considered to be the best benchmark in this regard.

These record figures confirm the investors' confidence in the measures taken by the Government, and I can only rejoice that we managed to build this relationship of trust.

Furthermore, the number of newly established companies with foreign capital in Romania increased in the first 10 months of 2022 by over 30 percent compared to a similar period in 2021, reaching 6,175 new companies, according to data centralized by the National Trade Register Office.

These indicators show us that large investors clearly see the long-term growth prospects of the Romanian economy and include Romania in their investment strategies.

As stated at the start of my term of office, the Government is dedicated to investments and this is demonstrated through deeds. In this year's budget, investment expenditure will reach 112 billion RON and will account for approximately 7.22 percent of GDP, a historic level for our country.

All these measures have generated economic stability and led to an increase in investor confidence in Romania. I confess that it is rejoicing that our country has remained a preferred destination for investors in Eastern Europe, after two years of pandemic and in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Romania has ranked 16th out of 32 countries in the ranking of the most attractive countries for investments in 2022, surpassing countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, and is close to Poland.

These are data that make us happy and encourage us to continue the pro-investment, pro-business measures. We all know that foreign investment directly contributes to the country’s economic development, creates new jobs, and has a catalyst effect on the economy, as chains of suppliers are forming around them, and local companies are developing creating in their turn new jobs and bringing prosperity in local communities.

These are important arguments prompting us to further support investments in the Romanian economy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I assure you that we will not stop here and we will continue to take measures to favor investments. The process of Romania’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is on this trajectory. Last month, we submitted in Paris the initial memorandum on our country’s OECD accession, a process that will strengthen Romania’s modernization, after our NATO and EU integration. The adoption of the standards of the Organization which brings together 90 percent of foreign investments at the global level will largely open windows of opportunity for the business sector, for capital.

Accession to the OECD and the successful implementation of the reforms assumed through the PNRR [the National Recovery and Resilience Plan] are objectives assumed that we will manage to complete with your help.

For the modernization of Romania, we need every euro from the European funds that we have at our disposal, we need determination and, of course, your expertise, for which I thank you for sharing with us whenever needed.

I continue to believe in the power of dialogue, in our partnership, and in the solutions found together, because only together can we build a sustainable future for Romania's economy, giving hope to the young generation regarding the development perspectives in this country.

Thank you for your collaboration. I wish you the best of luck in everything you do and I also hope to see you again soon. I apologize for not being able to attend this event in -person, I had to cover all of today's activities, but I promise that in a very short period of time, we will arrange a meeting with you via that we can develop, detail all the aspects that are certainly on your list of topics and that we must, as we did once again last year, do this year as well, so that foreign investment continues to be a relevant contributor to Romania's economy, to Romania's GDP.

Thank you!

I wish you success and look forward to seeing you at the following anniversary events!