Foreign Investors Council: It's time to focus on economic growth

The Foreign Investors Council (CIS), believes Romania's problems have to do with a lack of priorities in resource allocation, rather than the lack of resources, and has resumed talks on the five priority investments that could add 9.5% percent to the GDP growth and lead to the creation of around 200,000 jobs.

"The Romanian economy is at a crossroads. An economic model based on investments and exports is necessary, our goal is sustainable development, with higher revenues and improved competitiveness. Romania's problem is the lack of priorities in the allocation of its resources rather than a lack of resources in absolute terms," said Mariana Gheorghe, president of CIS and manager of the biggest company in Romania, Petrom.

The total investments calculated by CIS for the five priority projects would amount to 10 billion euros, with budget costs amounting to just 2.4 billion euros. The five projects would bring 3.6 billion euros in additional state budget revenues.

At present there are 46,000 public investment projects in various stages of implementation.

The Nădlac-Sibiu motorway should be the no. 1 priority on the list of five investment priorities for the next five years, considering its impact in the economy, the budget spending and the EU co-funding. The investment, estimated at 3 to 4 billion euros, could raise the GDP by 3.6 percent on medium term and create 74,000 new jobs.

Second on the list of projects is resumption of works on the Bucureşti-Braşov motorway. The other top investment priorities are Craiova-Constanţa infrastructure projects, Tarniţa-Lăpuşteşti hydro-power station and the recently launched Extreme Light Infrastructure pan-European project.