The slogan of the ‘90s, “We will not sell our country”, under which privatizations were carried out too late for companies to be saved, brought some companies in the processing industry from the status of fully operational plants to mere facts in the economic history of the country.
The 100 largest processing companies in 1994 had overall revenue of around $8.6 billion and in 2013 the total revenue of the still operational companies reached some $16 billion.
Four companies of this ranking, Automobile Dacia, Rompetrol Rafinare, Petrotel-Lukoil and ArcelorMittal Galati generated together revenue worth $11 billion last year, namely over two thirds of the total.
Whereas in two decades the revenue of top companies in the processing industry doubled, gross domestic product rose more than six times in the same period, from $30 billion in 1994 to $190 billion in 2013.
“If Romania now had a company manufacturing buses (Rocar) and a machinery one (ARO Campulung), economic growth would have reached at least 5% per annum. Privatizations were carried irrationally and at a time when the company could no longer be saved,” said professor Cezar Mereuta, honorific member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Economic Forecasting part of the Romanian Academy.
In his opinion, companies such as Romcar, ARO, Tractorul and Steagul Rosu were the key production capacities in the transportations means industry, but their privatizations were not strategic objectives as they should have been.
“The biggest luck for the Romanian economy was the privatization of Automobile Dacia. Had it not been for this privatization, Romania would have been an exporter of textiles and not of car parts to this day,” added professor Mereuta.
One of the major reasons that have led to this situation is the too old technologies the Romanian processing industry used at the time of the Revolution, believes professor Mircea Cosea.
He adds that another reason is Romania’s having embraced a deindustrialization policy.
Adrian Moraru, director at the Institute for Public Policy (IPP), is of the same opinion. “It was normal for the market economy model to lead to the transformation or disappearance of some companies in the industry field”. “Moreover, Romania did not have a management school,” added Moraru.
Only 12 of the companies part of the ranking of 1994 were taken over by other companies, with this category including privatizations carried out by the state.
In the opinion of professor Mircea Cosea, big concessions were also made for Romania to join the EU.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)