PM Ludovic Orban: Share of local capital must increase in process of economic development

The share of local capital must increase in the process of economic development, and the authorities must be its "partner and supporter" and not "an obstacle maker", Prime Minister Ludovic Orban stated on Monday, at the Romanian Capital Forum. "In the process of economic development, of course there should be no discrimination between the foreign and the Romanian capital, but under harsh conditions, the foreign capital leaves much easier, while the Romanian domestic capital is the one that provides an economic backbone and that is why I believe that the share of local capital must increase and any Romanian who wants to set up a business must find in the Government, in the local authorities, a partner and a supporter, by now means as it is today, an obstacle maker and a hindering instrument," Orban said at the event taking place at the Palace of the Parliament. The head of the executive added that access to capital is fundamental for Romanian companies, noting a way must be found to capitalize more on the resources to support development projects. "Of course, many things have to be done - from the speed of registration of a company, to the speed of granting the VAT payer certificate and to the speed of obtaining all that means certificates, authorizations and other documents that are issued by the administrative entities. I also think that access to capital is fundamental for Romanian companies, access to archives is also very important. I am furthermore convinced that we will have to find a way to capitalize on the resources we have access to in order to support the Romanian companies' development projects. We have many projects, from making investments, to a support system for the internationalization of Romanian companies, to procedural simplifications, to programmes that really support business development and which will encourage as many people as possible to start businesses," said Orban. In this context, the prime minister emphasized the importance of education in the field, which would stimulate initiative, creativity or the power of analysis. "The reality is that if you look at the number of people who are involved in companies, if you look at the number of companies per 1,000 inhabitants that are being set up, Romania is well below the European line, if we look at the shares of the local capital in different areas of activity, we can see that there is a great place of growth, a great place of development, and what the Government has to realize, besides everything that means the transformation of the entrepreneurial administration and with a support administration for the entrepreneurs, the action must also aim education, and the education process must really encourage things other than the memorization and production capacity, conformism, but, on the contrary, it must encourage initiative, boldness, creativity and associative skills, the power of analysis and synthesis and moral-volitional qualities," Orban said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Sorin Penes, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Bogdan Gabaroi)