World Bank President David Malpass has warned that it could take
several years for global energy production to diversify away from
Russia, prolonging the risk of stagflation or a period of low growth
and high inflation. He has announced that the World Bank’s upcoming
report "Poverty and Shared Prosperity" will show that decades of
progress in reducing poverty had slowed down by 2015, even before the
Covid-19 pandemic, which sent an additional 70 million people into
extreme poverty.
On Thursday, 29 September, the European Commission decided to send
letters of formal notice to Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland and Romania for
failing to notify their national long-term strategies on the governance
of the energy union and climate action. Stable long-term strategies are
crucial to help achieve the economic transformation needed and broader
sustainable development goals, as well as move towards the long-term
climate goals set by the Paris Agreement.
Despite the economic challenges generated by the Covid-19 pandemic and
the Russian invasion of Ukraine, IFC stepped up its efforts to support
companies in Romania with a record USD 458 million investment in 2022
tax year - between July 2021 and June 2022 – in order to protect jobs,
support small businesses and accelerate a green and resilient recovery.
IFC also invested EUR 42.5 million in a EUR 500 million green bonds
issue launched by CTP N.V., a European owner-developer of sustainable
industrial and logistics properties.
Raiffeisen Bank has provided RON 5 million financing for the
construction of the RoCordis hospital in Timişoara, which specializes
in cardiovascular pathologies in adults and children, a project led by
physician Gabriel Ivănică The funds ensured the completion of
construction works and the purchase of the necessary equipment for the
hospital, according to data transmitted by the bank’s officials on
Thursday, 29 September 2022. Raiffeisen Bank is a top 5 universal bank
in Romania, with 2.28 million clients, individuals and companies.
BT Leasing Transilvania, controlled by Banca Transilvania, the biggest
bank in Romania, will take over, through absorption, Țiriac Leasing, a
company with RON 127.3 million revenues and a RON 30.5 million net
profit in 2021. In 2021, BT Leasing reported a net profit of RON 61.7
million, on total revenues of RON 209 million. Banca Transilvania
became the sole shareholder of Țiriac Leasing at the beginning of June
2022. Following a recent decision of shareholders, Banca Transilvania
will receive RON 200 million dividends from Țiriac Leasing.
The banking sector has recorded the biggest increase in the level of
consumer satisfaction (measured by the Customer Satisfaction Score) in
2022, having thus become the leader in this regard in Romania and
having dethroned food trade, the market leader according to this
indicator in 2021. Similar to the findings in 2021, there are still no
visible differences among companies in terms of the experience they
offer to customers, according to the McKinsey Customer Experience
survey, conducted for the second time in Romania, a press release
indicates.
Launched a year ago, GirlPower, OTP Bank Romania’s mentoring program
for young women at the beginning of their careers, ended with the
awarding of two scholarships worth a total of EUR 6,000, paid directly
by the bank, according to a press release. The cited source indicates
that, at the end of an extensive learning process, scholarships were
granted to Lucia Prisecariu, within ReGeneration Academy’s personal
development program, and to Ana Vicoveanu, for the Fast Track
Management program, organized by Bucharest International School of
Management.
Olimpia Parking, a company with Romanian-Swiss shareholding, finalized
the investment in a car park with 1,500 parking spaces located near
Otopeni airport, in September 2022. The car park has been built on a
five-level metal structure. It includes 36 22 kW stations for electric
cars and one 90 kW fast charge station, according to Alina Niță, the
company’s administrator.
Wonderland Cluj, a resort with an accommodation capacity of 38 rooms
and which also provides horse riding and various outdoor activities,
has invested about RON 9 million in the past year, through financing
attracted with the help of the SME Invest program, as well as through
bank financing, to finalize the last construction and increase its
accommodation capacity by 25 rooms, Ioana Mârza, administrator of
Wonderland Cluj, stated during the "From Vis to Biz" program, a project
carried out by Ziarul Financiar in partnership with OTP Bank. She also
explained that the initial investment in the resort in 2014, apart from
the 7 hectares of land she already owned, had been ensured from a car
and a well-positioned house in a district in Cluj.
Bakery company Lantmännen Unibake, owned by a cooperative of Swedish
farmers, with a EUR 4.8 billion annual turnover, which produces buns
for McDonald’s on the local market, has launched in Romania the largest
greenfield investment ever made at group level. The EUR 90 million
project will consist of a bakery with three new production lines, to be
opened successively on the platform in the town of Pantelimon, near
Bucharest, and will create more than 300 new jobs. The first production
line will double current sales, of EUR 25 million, and the plan is to
reach a EUR 100 million annual turnover by the end of the project.
Timiş County Council is to invest RON 1.6 million for the construction
of a heliport on Cioca Aerodrome, at the exit from Timişoara, where
SMURD helicopters, private ambulances and even the largest helicopter
of the Romanian Air Force, Mi-17, will be able to land. According to a
press release issued by Timiş County Council on Thursday, the
construction contract has been signed and actual works will start on 10
October.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă announced, in the opening of the
Government meeting on Thursday, 29 September, that the Emergency
Ordinance on fuel price compensation would be extended. As a result,
Romanians will benefit from the same compensation measure until the end
of 2022, the Prime Minister added. Moreover, Energy Minister Virgil
Popescu recently said that he did not believe diesel prices would
exceed RON 9/liter in the following period.
On Thursday, 29 September 2022, Save Romania Union (USR) submitted a
draft law to ensure the transparency of political parties’ expenses
from public money received as subsidies with media and propaganda. USR
took into consideration the Council of Europe’s call for the
declassification of contracts through which public funds are
transferred by parties to the media. USR says it is thus responding to
the numerous alarm signals about the way in which ruling parties use
money from the state budget to ensure favourable media, so that issues
with a major impact on the lives of all Romanians are either ignored or
played down and to make sure the opposition is attacked with endless
fake news.
On Thursday, 29 September 2022, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated
the law increasing the unemployment benefit granted to people who
contributed minimum one year to the public social security system, from
75% of the value of the social reference indicator to 100%. The draft
law submitted by the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR)
in May 2020 amends Article 39, paragraph (2), letter a) of Law 76/2002.
Romania’s foreign ministry reiterated its condemnation of the
referendums being organized in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled areas,
whose results were announced on Wednesday. Russia organized referendums
in the four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russian forces. The
Russian-backed authorities there said they expect results to go largely
in favor of joining Russia, though the West and Kyiv maintain that the
voting was held at gunpoint. The ministry also reaffirmed Romania’s
strong support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
The importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a
guarantor of national security has grown by 11% over the past year in
the public perception of 14 European and North American countries,
according to an annual survey conducted by German Marshall Fund (GMF).
Countries geographically close to Russia and Ukraine are those where
NATO’s importance is higher (91% in Poland, 88% in Romania, 87% in
Lithuania), but high percentages were also recorded in Western European
countries such as Portugal (90%), the Netherlands (81%) or Germany
(80%).
A study on how Romanians perceive climate change shows that Romanians,
even those over 55, are convinced that global warming is real and are
rather pessimistic about finding a solution to climate change. One of
the main findings of the study is that young people aged 15-24 are more
aware of the impact climate change will have and are more pessimistic
compared to other generations, who estimate their optimism rate between
50% (over 54) and 52% (25-54).