AHK’s Anastasiu: Germany’s “best practice” could get Romania out from the turning point

In times of growing mobility and internationalization of goods, services, labour and capital, Romanian regions are facing increased competition against other regions in the world. Specialists say Romania has grown up in the last 15 years, but unfortunately it hasn’t developed.

“Everything that happened in the infrastructure of cities was ‘by chance’ and not because we planned it that way,” Dragos Anastasiu, President of the German-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania) stated on Tuesday, attending the 5^th edition of ‘Cities of Tomorrow – competitive regions, cities & communities’, an event supported by The Romania Journal as media partner .

In this context, Anastasiu, who is also Eurolines Group President, gave lifestyle and tourism as example.

According to him, after 70 years of ‘very serious diseases’, Romania looks good now and is on the right track. The various diseases that Anastasiu talks about are: communism, dictatorship, incompetence, nepotism and corruption.

However, it’s a great opportunity for us as it could be the right track, both in terms of overall development and urban development. This goes also for cities, communes or villages.

“We who live in Romania feel that this country is at a turning point. After these 70 years, I think we are as a body at puberty, a period which is not quite easy for a person, when deep and turbulent internal changes occur, a struggle between old and new. A body part wants to stay as it was, because it’s more convenient and it’s a habit, but another part of the body wants to develop itself and wants something else,” AHK Romania President explained.

AHK official said that Germans’ “best practice”, as well as their knowledge and experience in the last 25 years, could help Romania very much. In this context, Germany is still Romania’s most important economic partner, as the bilateral economic relations went up in 2016, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS) data.

Romania’s imports from Germany amounted to EUR 13.8 billion last year (+ 10.5 percent) and exports EUR 12.3 billion (+ 14.6 percent). The total trade volume between the two countries stood at EUR 26.1 billion (+ 12.4 percent), which means over 20 percent of Romania’s foreign trade – a growing trend. The most important product groups in the trade between Germany and Romania are: machinery, electrical equipment, transport materials and base metals.

There are around 7,500 German companies active on the domestic market with over 250,000 employees.

“In our discussions with German investors, the availability of qualified staff is one of the most important criteria in taking investment decision. This refers to both the university and vocational education, which in a functional education system are complementary,” Sebastian Metz, general director of AHK Romania, stated.