Bogdan Tudorache

EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti has pledged support for Romania’s efforts to pursue pro-business reforms, address Romania’s infrastructure needs and encourage investment in human and physical capital.

The EBRD head visited Bucharest on Tuesday for meetings with the country’s new Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, and ministers, including Virgil Popescu, Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment; Victor Costache, Minister of Health; Lucian Bode, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications; and Sebastian Burduja, State Secretary of the Ministry of Public Finance.

Discussions focused on the investment climate, sustainable infrastructure investment, and corporate finance, both for expansion of local companies and in support of increased foreign investment.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Romania and to date has invested over €8.6 billion in the country. In 2019 alone, it committed €372 million in 22 investment projects across various sectors of the Romanian economy.

President Chakrabarti welcomed the agenda of the new administration in Bucharest and the recent reversal of a series of taxes on the banking, energy and telecommunications sectors. He urged the authorities to foster the anti-corruption drive without freezing decision-making and implementation processes. He also called for improved governance of state-owned enterprises, making them more efficient and profitable, paving the way to further listings and boosting the local capital markets.

Chakrabarti said: “Romania needs to step up public investments that boost human and physical capital – public services, roads, railways, health and education – while making the most of EU structural funds and the country’s dynamic private sector.”