Part of global economy, Romania’s economy is going through a difficult time, generated, among others, by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The Bucharest Government adopted on Thursday the first set of measures to support economy, the constructions sector in particular. Some 1.77 billion lei will be earmarked to ease the impact of the rise in the price of construction materials and in the cost of the labour force. According to statistical data for the month of January, the constructions sector contributes 6.6% to Romania’s GDP.
PM Nicolae Ciuca said that financing lines have already been identified. Nicolae Ciuca: ˮThis sector needs to complete its projects and take on new ones, in the upcoming period, because we have many projects to unfold under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Among these measures are two essential components, both leading to the same thing: investing in economy, preserving jobs and doing our best to reach the main objective of developing Romania ˮ.
In turn, Development Minister Cseke Attila said there is the risk of certain contracts being blocked and entrepreneurs going bankrupt. He gave some examples of price rises in the constructions sector. ˮThe price of metal went up by 70% over January-March 2022 and that of concrete by 20%. The price of labour has also gone up these months, just like the price of electricity, fuel, iron, wood and brick,ˮ the minister said.
He presented the situations in which support measures in the construction sector apply: ˮThe measures apply to contracts which were still in the acquisition phase last August, when the Government Order No. 15 was adopted. Also, contracts whose public acquisition is under way and offers have not been submitted yet, will be revised. The measures will also apply to contracts under way that do not have a revision clause and to contracts that have a revision clause based on Order 15, in the case of which this new clause regulated under the Emergency Order adopted today cover market realities betterˮ.
On the other hand, the Government green lighted on Thursday the upgrading of the rail infrastructure in Contanta Port, southeastern Romania, aimed to ease the managements of additional flows of goods and the development of multimodal transport. Some 200 million lei from the government‘s Reserve Fund will be allocated for rail infrastructure. According to Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu, this measure will also ensure the pace and capacity of all transport activities in the Port of Constanta.
(Leyla Cheamil, Radio Romania International)
