The entrepreneurs believe the 5% advance needs to be the objective of any entrepreneur, executive, small company or multinational.
“We either stay in the 19th century, or fight for 5% economic growth. Otherwise, we will not be catching up with Europe. We are very far behind. Romanians need to find solutions to grow by 5%, together. We all need to push for this,” said Mihai Marcu, president of MedLife, the largest player on the local private healthcare market.
The company was founded 18 years ago and today employs almost 3,000 people.
“The budgetary gap is absurdly low. We cannot afford this. We do not need for GDP to expand if we slash investments and do not boost consumption,” added Marcu.
The budgetary gap reached just 0.24% of GDP in the first eight months of this year, with the projection for the entire year pointing to 2.2% of GDP, but in its drive to slash investment expenses, the Romanian state has overlooked industries where tens of thousand jobs can be created.
“Romania has lived on exports, but this has not showed in living standards. The purchasing power has plunged. The key to development is to spur Romanian small and large companies,” said Raul Ciurtin, president and the majority stakeholder in Albalact, a major FMCG company in Romania, with almost 1,000 employees.
The Romanian entrepreneurs who attended the ZF meeting state they haven’t waited for help from the state for a long time, but only hope to see the times when the state no longer stands in their way, no longer changes the rules during the game and has a pro-business approach.
“This country has no management as it has no vision. Incompetence prevails. No state institution is pro-business,” said Eugen Paturan, the Romanian entrepreneur who brought Bata and New Balance footwear franchises locally.
To have 5% economic growth, the state should also support small enterprises and cut red tape, said Adrian Simion, co-founder of Guido Coffee. Ioana Romanescu, founder of Cupcake Philosophy, also spoke about the lack of support from the state and about the widespread red tape.
Another ZF Expert participant, Gheorghe Fodoreanu, owner of Invitation Romania travel agency, stated Romania cannot have 5% economic growth in the lack of a class of economically well-trained politicians. In his opinion, tourism, agriculture and the IT sector can support economic growth.
Andrei Pitis, president of ANIS (Romania’s national software industry association), said he wanted nothing from the government, except for it to provide a legal framework and spend the money for education and healthcare and other administration elements.
Romania has been losing momentum lately, sliding from 3.5% GDP growth last year and estimates going as high as 4% growth this year to an increase of just 1.2% in the second quarter of this year.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)