PM Ciuca: In crisis situation, only solution is investment

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca reiterated on Monday that in a crisis situation, as the one Romania is going through, the only solution is investment, and the role of the Government is to support them through public policies that have as a purpose ensuring stability and economic development.

"It must be emphasized that Romanians had to face a health crisis, then the economic crisis and starting with February, we are also facing a security crisis, a war at our border, in the neighboring country, Ukraine, following the invasion of the Russian Armed Forces," said Nicolae Ciuca in an interview at Radio Romania News (RRA).

"What I want to emphasize is that at this moment, in order to protect the economy, to protect jobs, to create mor jobs, we need the business environment, Romanian entrepreneurs to be supported and I would like for us to understand this period as being directed to ensure stability and, as much as possible, the development of our country's economy. We have had frequent meetings with Romanian and foreign investors. This relaunch, this stability and, why not, the relaunch of the economy, we can only achieve together. This is the role of the Government, to come with policies to encourage and support investments, and the business environment must continue development plans, and for this it needs predictability, it needs legislative stability and, of course, we need to maintain this permanent dialogue with them to understand the reality, to understand the opportunities and, of course, we must be able to do risk management," said Ciuca.

"And these publicly-announced appreciations are very good signals for investment needs. We have raised no tax, and this predictability is an important asset. This year we have the greatest investment budget in the last 30 years earmarked in the budget - 88 billion RON. Furthermore, we have taken all measures to be able to absorb, to attract as high as possible a sum from European money - we are talking about 80 billion euro -, that ensure both stability, as I was saying, but also offers the possibility of developing the economy, it offers the possibility of ensuring jobs, it offers the possibility to think that through this economic growth we may ensure for Romania a reduction of the gap between the countries in the east and those in the west," Ciuca also said.