The Romanian dailies on Monday carry reports, analyses and commentaries on the 2007 economic growth, the Romanians’ electoral options revealed by two new surveys, the foreign investments in Romania, the privatisation of car maker Daewoo and privatisations in the energy sector.
The only political leaders who have managed to stay at the top of the Romanians’ approval in October as well are President Traian Basescu (57 percent), presidential aide Theodor Stolojan (43 percent) and Conservative Party leader (PC, a junior ruling coalition partner) Dan Voiculescu (12 percent), shows an INSOMAR survey made public on Sunday and carried by the Ziua daily.
According to the poll, in case elections were held next week, the ruling Alliance of Liberals and Democrats would win with 46 percent, followed by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) with 23 percent and the opposition Greater Romania Party (PRM) with 12 percent.
Romania libera carries the results of a separate survey conducted by BCS showing that the ruling Alliance would win 46.3 percent of the votes, the PSD 22.2 percent and the PRM 10.1 percent.
The National Commission for Prognosis estimates that the Gross Domestic Product will grow significantly next year and the increased activities in construction and services are expected to contribute to the 6.5 percent economic growth, Economistul reports.
„While we see the GDP growing, we fail to see a matching increase in welfare”, Jurnalul National says in an editorial. It adds that the economists are facing a threatening prospect since Romania’s joining the European Union in a little more than a month will make the shops register even more cash.
„If production fails to gain its genuine meaning, that of a supplier of consumer goods and services, of jobs and money, then we shall have problems with the inflation and the balance of payments’ gap”, the analyst concludes.
Romania libera daily carries an article headlined „The made-in-Romania investors are scarce, to say the least” saying that the economic expansion of the domestic firms is but at its early stage.
„Romania keeps on attracting investors endlessly and, although half the funds earmarked for business in the Southeastern European states are invested in the Romanian economy (some 8 billion euros, a record figure forecast for end-2006), for the time being the investments are notably made from the outside, as the Romanian companies have not yet reached the maturity and development required to expand and gain profit in the regional and international markets”, the paper writes.
The Bucharest-based dailies also carry reports on the current debates on oil company Petrom’s privatisation and gas tariff hikes, and the meeting of the Romanian Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) to be held next days.
Reports Romania libera: „The planned CSAT meeting on the Petrom privatisation has stirred a tempest in the energy system. OMV chairman Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, whose company holds a majority stake in Petrom, has rushed to Bucharest. On the very day of his arrival, OMV and Petrom issued news releases to praise the ‘benefits’ of the privatisation. Meanwhile, the energy system was shaken by the suspension of Electrica and Romgaz directors”.
Says Cotidianul in an editorial: „The CSAT has indeed a tough topic to debate and things to recover, but the underlying reality is the issue of the state control of the energy exploitation and distribution or, on the contrary, the issue of the state’s giving up the domestic energy market and consequently its capacity to outline a sovereign policy”.
„The Romanian Craiova-based car maker will be put up to privatisation after the issue of state debts incurred by Daewoo Motor Korea, the former majority shareholder of the company, is clarified”, Adevarul writes, adding that Economy Minister Codrut Seres said that the South Korean investors had been granted a range of cut-rate taxes in 1994 „and now the state institutions must find how much of that commitment has been met”.
Monday’s print media reports that Romania observes the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and it stresses the politicians’ lack of interest in preventing the road traffic accidents.
ROMPRES
