Thus, more than half (60%) of the respondents are expecting their business to grow, both from the local market and from the export market, while 65% of respondents expect their revenues to grow in 2017.
The majority of the respondents consider that Romania is still competitive in terms of the availability of well-trained workforce but a quarter find it uncompetitive. The number of respondents who find the workforce uncompetitive has been increasing in the past two years.
On the other hand, 50% of respondents believe that the legislative process affecting business planning has moderately or significantly worsened, while 70% believe that the lack of transparency and consistency of policies makes Romania moderately or significantly uncompetitive compared with other locations where they are doing business.
Despite tax cuts, 50% find the fiscal burden uncompetitive while 38% of the respondents rate it as competitive.
As for the economy growth rate, foreign investors consider that growth rates of 5-6% are only sustainable in the long run, with consistent investments from both public and private sources, thus, economic growth policies should not rely solely on stimulating consumption.
A significant number of FIC members still say that they expect Romania to remain competitive on the labor market.
As for the “bad news” category, many FIC members have reported an increased administrative and regulatory burden in the fiscal area, due to certain forms regarding VAT registration and reporting.
Nevertheless, foreign investors say that the efforts of Romanian tax authority ANAF to modernize and digitalize its services with the help of the World Bank are very welcome.
According to FIC members, high economic growth rates are not sustainable in the long run if there is a lack of predictability, laws are adopted without careful consideration of their impact and there are insufficient investments in key areas like infrastructure and education.