“Romania has great people, but needs infrastructure investments. We would gladly bring more money and invest in infrastructure, in highways, airports, but to do that we need you to come up with well-devised projects and we also need suitable legislation to allow us to invest,” Bate said.
It is not the money that is lacking, but the legislative framework and good projects. The government must be pressured to come up with such investment projects and Allianz will help with Romania’s development, Bate added. He was in Bucharest for the Insurance Europe conference, the annual meeting of European insurers.
Romania has a huge potential, Bate said, using Cluj as an example, because the city has a comparable number of students to Munich. Cluj is a powerful IT center. It is an example that shows Romania’s potential. “What you need is infrastructure,” he added.
On the other hand, it is not clear from the politicians’ statements whether they want investors like Allianz to contribute to Romania’s development and increase investments or not, Bate says.
“If you don’t appreciate international investors, if you have a faulty legislation such as may happen on the private pension market, the money won’t come to Romania.”
He met with governmental officials on Thursday evening and will be meeting with Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) representatives on Friday.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)