Financiarul

BNR: 10 pc solvency for banks, to stay the same at least on IMF agreement applicability

Commercial banks in Romania 10 percent solvency rate is expressly mentioned in the Agreement concluded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and there is no danger to be infringed at least during this agreement applicability period (till May 2011), stated on Wednesday prime vice-governor of Romania’s National Bank (BNR) Florin Georghescu present in the Central [...]

Geoana: Romania is bridgehead for Japanese products in Europe

Romania can be a bridgehead for the Japanese products in Europe, said President of the Senate Mircea Geoana during the talks with Prince Akishino of Japan and Princess Kiko on Wednesday. Mircea Geoana presented a few fields of interest for Romania as regards the relations with Japan. “There are three fields in which we want [...]

Rovana Plumb: My objective remains full equality between men and women

The Social Democrat candidate in the elections for the European Parliament (EP), Rovana Plumb, referred in an interview  to her main objectives in the European legislative forum, to her activity in EP, so far, as well as to the voting presence. Rovana Plumb stressed, first of all, that she was persuaded to candidate again for [...]

ForMin Cristian Diaconescu pays official visit to Poland

Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu on Wednesday is to pay an official visit to Warsaw, reads a release of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The head of the Romanian diplomacy is to meet on this occasion his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski and also the Polish presidential adviser on foreign affairs Mariusz [...]

ArcelorMittal Hunedoara halts production for ten days

ArcelorMittal Hunedoara (west) steel producer halted on Wednesday its production for a ten-day period, the company employees going to take, by rotation, their summer vacation and technical unemployment. “We concluded the production programme for this month. We estimate that production could be re-started at the beginning of June”, announced manager of ArcelorMittal Hunedoara Remus Patan. [...]

Parent banks of largest foreign banks reaffirm support for their Romanian subsidiaries

The parent banks of the largest nine foreign banks operating in Romania in Tuesday reaffirmed support in Brussels for their Romanian subsidiaries, in line with their commitment of Vienna of March 26. The economic and financial state of affairs in Romania was discussed at a meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, attended by nearly 60 persons [...]

Romania’s Health Minister Ion Bazac met the chargé ďaffaires of the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest Mrs Jeri Guthrie-Corn on Wednesday. Minister Bazac presented the U.S. dignitary the main reform steps that the Health Ministry is to take in Romania’s healthcare system, this year. The U.S. chargé in her turn assured Minister Bazac that the U.S. [...]

Car market down almost 55 percent in four months

The sales of new cars on the Romanian market went down in the first four months of 2009 by 54.9 percent as against the same period of the previous year and stood at 49,971 units, compared to 110,839 units over January-April 2008, according to the statistics of the Association of Car Makers and Importers (APIA). [...]

Govt sitting to discuss possible cut in natural gas price

The National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) president Petru Lificiu is to inform about the price of the natural gas, during the Government’s Wednesday sitting, PM Emil Boc announced. Lificiu will also present a report on the possible measures to cut the price for the natural gas, provided ANRE is prepared to propose such steps, PM [...]

Press review (May 19)

Romania’s national dailies of Wednesday give main coverage to President Traian Basescu voicing regrets over having brought the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to power to govern alongside the Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L); Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu voicing distrust in the legal codes he has promoted himself; PDL bracing up for a cut in the number of [...]

Green energy enhances companies’ efficiency

There is an obvious political will to enhance our responsibility towards the environment. But you can rightfully raise the question: What do you get as business people? Which would be the reasons to make you opt for a greener approach in your business? The answer resides in economic arguments, said the British Ambassador to Bucharest, [...]

MEPs campaigning for a new mandate

Overcoming prejudices regarding the European Parliament and making the electorate go to the polls for the euro-elections on June 7 are the main goals of the lection campaign, MEPs Gabriela Gretu and Renate Weber said Tuesday during a debate dubbed “Two years of European Parliament – What has been.. .What we have learned.. .What comes [...]

Azomures places 500 employees on temporary layoff

Chemical fertilizer plant Azomures Targu Mures (center Romania) announced that starting Wednesday will place on temporary layoff about 20-25% of the overall employees. The leader of the trade union Alternativa 2000 with Azomures, Dumitru Boanta, said on Tuesday that he did not know the exact number of the employees who will be placed on temporary [...]

Joint Romanian-Russian commission seeks solutions for Romgaz-Gazprom direct cooperation links

Moscow held talks between members of the Romanian delegation and the Russian authorities were positive, and a joint commission was set up, which is going to present in two months to the energy ministries in the two countries solutions for Romgaz¬Gazprom direct cooperation links, announced on Wednesday Romanian Economy Minister Adriean Videanu on a TV [...]

Authorities not to outsource for time being European projects to banking system

The Romanian authorities will not outsource, for the time being, the projects for structural funds from the European Union, but they will study that in the years to come, according to the general manager of the Central Authority for Structural Instruments Stefan Cioban. “In 2008, there were problems with the low speed of approval of [...]

Ambassador Cospito: Crisis does not affect Romanians working in Italy

The economic crisis does not affect the Romanians working in Italy as they work in fields where it is very difficult to replace them, said Italy’s Ambassador in Bucharest Mario Cospito on Wednesday. “There are no consequences on the Romanian citizens working in Italy because of the economic crisis. This is also due to the [...]

Crisis is also an opportunity for Romania, says PM Boc

The ongoing economic crisis is also an opportunity, and Romania may find a chance to carry through its structural reforms that were postponed in the past 20 years, Prime Minister Emil Boc told a Central and East-European financial forum on Wednesday. ‘The ongoing economic crisis is also an opportunity. There is always some good in [...]

Puscas: Elimination of justice monitoring must be result of reform

Elimination of the mechanism of cooperation and verification in the field of justice, set up by the European Commission (EC), must be the result of the positive evolution of the justice system reform in Romania, stated on Wednesday Minister Vasile Puscas, head of the European Affairs Department (DAE), during a meeting held in Bucharest with [...]

Development of power plants, solution for increase in energy independence

President Traian Basescu said, on Tuesday, when he returned from France, where he visited, among others, the nuclear reactor of the 3rd generation in Flamanville, under construction now, that the development of nuclear plants is a solution for an increase in the level of energy independence. President Sarkozy and I, we have the same point [...]

The “Stop the Codes” coalition, against taking responsibility for the codes

The coalition “Stop the Codes!” made up of civil society organizations, have said they are against the Government’s taking responsibility for the adoption of the draft codes. According to a release sent to Agerpres on Wednesday, such measure does not answer the requests of a democratic society and weakens Romania’s institutional construction. The coalition says [...]

MAE requests lifting visa requirements for Canada

Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs Bogdan Aurescu on Wednesday met President of the Canadian Senate Noel Kinsella, whom he asked for the lifting of the visa requirements for the Romanian citizens and the Canadian official voiced his country’s willingness to achieve this target as soon as possible, informs a release of the Romanian Ministry [...]

Government has to support to competitive fields

Gov’t has to use all the levers available to it in order to support the fields in which Romania has competitive advantages compared with other countries, said, on Wednesday, PM Emil Boc. “It is the role of the government to use the levers at its disposal, such as state aid, governmental guarantees, in order to [...]

Corlatean: OSCE, Romania want European democracies’ involvement in Republic of Moldova

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Romania believe the European democratic family should render more active support to the efforts aimed at seeing a return to the democratic standards in the Republic of Moldova, chairman of the Romanian Senate’s foreign policy commission Titus Corlatean said after meeting the Greek OSCE chairman-in-office’s [...]

PM Emil Boc: Wages of new employee, subsidized from European funds

PM Emil Boc said, on Tuesday, at Victoria governmental Palace, that the government has, in a partnership with the European Commission, a programme in support of the companies for the creation if jobs. “This is an extremely important programme that the Government has for the support of companies. It is a programme which the government, [...]

Domestic tourism to surge 15 percent this year, according to ANAT

Domestic tourism will grow this year by some 15 percent, while the number of foreign tourists coming to Romania will stagnate in 2009, remaining at the level of 2008, against the background of an international tendency of reducing traveling for tourism purposes, prompted by the financial crisis, announced representatives of the National Association of Tourism [...]

Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko on visit to University of Bucharest

Their Imperial Highnesses Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko on Wednesday visited the Japanese language section of the University of Bucharest. The high Japanese guests, who are in Romania on a visit that is part of the events of the year of friendship between Japan and the Danube countries, were shown the Japanese language laboratory within [...]

Central Bank: Romania has avoided serious recession thanks to exchange rate flexibility

Romania has avoided a dramatic recession like the one that gripped the Balkan states thanks to the flexibility of the exchange rate, chief economist of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Valentin Lazea said at the central and Southeastern European financial forum in Bucharest. The domestic currency’s depreciation from 3.8 lei to 4.3 lei to [...]

PM Boc: Gas price, 5 pc cut starting July 1

Gas price will be cut 5 percent starting July 1, announced on Wednesday Premier Emil Boc. “Given the 3 percent reduction since May 1, we will have a 8 percent cut per total in the natural gas price”, Emil Boc also said. Throughout 2008 the National Regulatory Authority in Energy Field (ANRE) has hiked the [...]

Vet twinning project between Lithuania and Romania

A project in the vet field field and for the safety of foods was officially opened, on Wednesday, on Wednesday, at the hqs of the National Sanitary-Veterinary Authority and for the Safety of Food (ANSVSA). The project has been funded from the funds of a programme on “Incentives in Transition”. Attending the event were Vladimir [...]

President Basescu praises Japanese assistance during Romania’s transition

President Traian Basescu and his wife Maria met on Wednesday at the presidential Cotroceni Palace Japan’s Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko, who are paying a four-day visit to Romania. Basescu communicated Romania’s appreciation of the generous assistance offered by the Japanese government during the transition years, the Presidential Administration said in a press release. The [...]

ForMin Diaconescu asks Warsaw’s support for Danube basin development strategy

Romania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu met with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorsky, on Wednesday when he presented him the project of the European Danube basin development strategy and asked the Warsaw Administration’s support for its enactment within the European Union (EU), the Romanian Foreign Ministry informs. Diaconescu and Sikorsky discussed the project of [...]

Dijmarescu: Rating agencies could reassess Romania’s outlook at the end of 2009

Credit rating agencies could reassess Romania’s outlook by the end of the year following the application of the provisions in the arrangement concluded with the International Monetary Fund, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Eugen Dijmarescu said on Wednesday at the end of a Central and Easter-European Financial Forum. Standard&Poor’s ratings agency [...]

Economic crisis is no ideological crisis, says PM Boc

The economic crisis is not also an ideological one says PM Emil Boc, who believes that “the seed” of the crisis lies in the incapacity of mechanisms in the market economy to work normally. “There are not few those who have seen in this crisis, it is true, the strongest in the past 60 years, [...]

BVB opens up

Quotations of the shares listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on Thursday appreciated 1.8 percent, evolution measured by the composite BET- C index, while the shares of the financial investment companies (SIFs) listed on the BVB have went dincreased 1.17 percent percent (the BET-FI index). The BET index showing the development in the ten [...]

Emil Boc: We’ll have a sole law on the state-employees’ wage system

Romania will have a sole law on the wage system of the state employees and there will be no special laws in this respect, said on Wednesday PM Emil Boc. ‘We’ll have a single law on the state-employees’ wage system and I want to announce to the working panel with the Ministry of Labour, Family [...]

Eurostat: Romania’s deficit with South Korea up in 2008

Romania’s exports to South Korea grew from 30 million euros in 2000 to 100 million euros in 2008, considering the imports went up from 229 to 523 million euros, according to figures centralized by the Statistical office of he European Commission (Eurostat). Therefore, Romania’s deficit of the trade balance in the relation with South Korea [...]

CSM to host ENCJ General Assembly meeting

Romania’s Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) will play host, May 27-29, to the 7th meeting of the General Assembly of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), CSM reports on a press release. The event is scheduled to take place at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest and tackle transparency and access to justice. [...]

Romanian-Bulgarian-Serbian joint trilateral center of contact in Vidin

A Romanian-Bulgarian-Serbian center will operate, starting this July, in Vidin , Bulgaria. The decision has been made during a meeting of the interior minsters of the three states, held, on Tuesday, in Bulgaria. Deputy prime minister Dan Nica, minister of the Administration and the Interior, along with his counterpart from Bulgaria, Mikhail Mikov, and the [...]

Mircea Geoana speaks up for dialogue in banking system

Speaker of the Romanian Senate Mircea Geoana, Social-Democrat Mircea Geoana, spoke up on Wednesday, for dialogue among the representatives of the banking system and those of the Central Bank of Romania, on essential matters, such as the re-start of crediting for the real economy and for essential projects for Romania. “The most serious problem is [...]

Two new funds on optional pension market

Two new funds on optional pension market Two new optional pension funds BRD PRIMO and BRD MEDIO, administered by SC BRD Private Pension Funds Administration Company SA, have been authorized on Tuesday, May 19, by the the Council of the Commission for the Surveillance of the Private Pension System (CSSPP) to manage optional pensions (Pillar [...]