Danube is Romania’s only continuous highway from Constanta to Western Europe at the moment, but navigation is difficult in the summer when the Danube level decreases. About 30 million tons of freight were carried on Romania’s internal waterways in 2015, while six times more was carried on the country’s roads, according to the National Statistics Institute data.
The development of the Danube can bring economic growth for Romaia. If the Danube is navigable throughout the entire year, the harbors will thrive and better connections between types of transportation will develop and thus create jobs. Constanta should be the driver of Romania’s economic development, Karla Peijs said at the Regional Transport Investment Conference the European Commission organized in Sofia. The GDP of the Constanta County has increased at double the rate of the rest of the economy since the inauguration of the Bucharest-Constanta highway in November 2012, a recent ZF analysis has found.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)