The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine are already being felt in Romania, which, like other countries, is struggling with high inflation, a rise in fuels costs, higher prices for products, and the situation of thousands of Romanian employees of businesses affected by the sanctions against Russia. In an attempt to counteract the effects of the war on the Romanian economy, prime minister Nicolae Ciucă on Thursday had talks with representatives of the private sector, including representatives of the Concordia employers’ association, which accounts for over a quarter of the country’s GDP. The purpose of the talks was to find new solutions to support the business community.
“We want to support the entire economic ensemble because it is important for the budget and especially for jobs”, said Ciucă, adding “we have large sums allocated for investments and there are European funding programmes available to support the economic sector. We are approaching in an integrated way the resources of tens of billions of euros that are available to us. The support given to the business sector is for the Romanian citizens and this is our priority”.
In the context of the war in Ukraine and given Romania’s intention to become independent from gas imports from Russia, Ciucă reminded business people that there are modernisation funds available that give them the possibility to develop the technology for renewable energy. He also presented the government’s efforts to finalise the gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, which can contribute to supplementing Romania’s access to natural gas. Another direction pursued by the government is to come up with legislation to increase Romania’s processing capacity in all economic sectors, said Ciucă.
The representatives of big supermarket chains said their stocks are sufficient to ensure supply down to the end-consumer, but asked that the purchasing power be maintained. Also on Thursday, the prime minister received assurances from farmers and producers of seeds and sun-flower oil in Romania that there are enough stocks for the population, including in the event of growing demand. Romania can play an important role within the European Union to compensate for the loss of imports from Ukraine, and thus contribute to the food safety of the Union and of third countries struggling with the consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the prime minister emphasised. (Corina Cristea, Radio Romania International)
