The authorities in Romania are afraid of public-private partnerships (PPP) because they are perceived not as tools for carrying out projects, but as weapons against the administration, considers Val Mureșan, advisor to the mayor of Timisoara on digitization and smart city issues.
“In the administration there is a fear of collaborating with the private sector. PPP is not seen in us as a tool, but as a weapon against the current administration. It is also a cultural problem that does not exist in other countries. There is a bit of fear towards this way of working”, said Mureșan, during the “Sustainable Communities – Timișoara” conference, organized by Energynomics and SmartiCity.
In his opinion, PPP still does not work because there is no sufficiently well-promoted legislation by the government, and secondly because the Romanians were not used to collaborating.
On the other hand, the digitization of administration is a cumbersome process. Even if there are local authorities that have invested in the digitization of public systems and services, this does not guarantee proper functioning.
“Another disease of the Romanian administration is that money has been invested in digitization, but the perception is that these computer systems are not used because they do not communicate with each other, and people are outdated because they are not IT professionals. Bureaucracy will exist as long as there is paper in the administration, and digitization is a first step”, said Mureșan.
The conference was organized by Energynomics and SmartiCity with the support of partners ABB, Bosch, EximBank, Geminox, Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe, LAPP Romania, Novotrol, Phoenix Contact, REI Group, UP Romania, Wiren.
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Throughout the event, Novotrol representatives answered participants’ questions. Novotrol is Baker Hughes Group’s channel partner for the Turbomachinery and Process Solutions (T.P.S.) and Flow & Process Technologies (F.&P.T.) divisions for Romania. “Our story started in 1996 with F.&P.T. Masoneilan Control Valves and Consolidated Safety Valves division. 27 years later we are still with F&P.T. but also with the Nuovo Pignone division from T.P.S. and with Thermodyn, thus offering more complete and complex solutions such as gas turbines and compressors”, told us Andrei Paraschiv, Sale Engineer Novotrol.