The outcome of Sunday's local elections, especially in the case of cities in the western region of the country has shown that voting did not necessarily have a political character.
The reelection of Klaus Johannis as mayor of Sibiu and of Gheorghe Ciuhandu as mayor of Timisoara cannot be accounted for by the strength of political bodies they represent. For those who voted, it counted less whether one candidate was a representative of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania, or that the other ran for PNTCD, a party that has long been lagging behind in the political scene.
What counted more was the fact that during the mandates of the two politicians, the respective cities managed to draw in significant foreign direct investments, generating new jobs and implicitly securing a better life for all the inhabitants of these cities. Indeed, this was also the reason why Gheorghe Funar was dismissed in Cluj: the level of foreign investments per capita is below the volume attracted by Timisoara and Sibiu.
Comparing investments made by German companies alone in the three cities it appears that by May 2004, Sibiu city had attracted investments worth over $40 million, Timisoara $125.9 million and Cluj only $7 million.
In other words, the level of German investment in these three cities stands at $236 per capita for Sibiu, $378 per capita in the case of Timisoara and $21 for Cluj.
"The nationalistic environment created by the former mayor has vanished and this had been the main hindrance for foreign investment in Cluj-Napoca. No investor wants to kick-start a business against a nationalistic backdrop. This unfavourable climate has cut all links with modern economic thinking. German investors tend to be reluctant, maybe sometimes over-reluctant, with regard to Cluj. The city's spiritual potential is high, but it needs to be tailored for the future," explained Gunther Wotsch, chairman of the Association of German speaking Businessmen in Northern Ardeal. "Gheorghe Funar's exit from the political scene of Cluj is an extremely positive factor that will influence the economic environment through a 100% increase in investments," he also stated.
Nevertheless, Wotsch considers that given the opportunity start all over again, he would invest all the money in Moldova, because this region has witnessed the most powerful evolution. "An economic, political and financial inventory initiated in 1990, when compared to that of 2004, proves that Moldova has registered the most significant advances," stated the representative of German businessmen.
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