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bcc: Romania Country Team, ECAEX TEAM
Week 44
- Economic News
- Political News
- Sector News
Romania Keeps 72nd Rank in Doing Business 2013 Report. The country
maintained its 72 spot in the 185- country Ease of Doing Business
Nominee to European Court of Auditors Rejected. The European
Parliament rejected the Minister of European Affairs Leonard Orban, the
Selling of EUR82M Worth of Electricity by Hidroelectrica.
The insolvent energy producer Hidroelectrica plans to sell 1.7 terawatts of electricity on the local energy exchange OPCOM for a total of EUR82 million, according to OPCOM data. Read more. report, due to two reforms that made it country’s nominee to the European easier to start a business and strengthened its legal framework for secured credit transactions. Read
Court of Auditors. Read more.
Visit of Martin Schulz. President of the
European Parliament (EP), Martin Schulz, will arrive in Romania on October 30 and will visit, along with Premier Victor Ponta, the water treatment plant in Târgu Jiu, not considering this involvement in the elections campaign. On October 31, Schulz will deliver a speech in
Two Hundred Romanians Targeted by Railway Fraud
Probe. About 200 people, mainly train conductors and controllers, were put under investigation within a vast operation against railway fraud launched by the
Payments Pre-suspended for Three EU-Funded Programs Worth EUR10.5B. The European
Commission decided to pre-suspend payments for transport, regional development and economic competitiveness programs, due to irregularities in the fund management
system. Read more.
Parliament and at the Central University authorities. The passenger railway Library, and will meet with President Traian Băsescu and other GoR officials.
company registered losses of $57.2 million in the first half of 2012 following a dramatic drop in the number of users, poor infrastructure and corruption.
GDP Growth Forecast Cut to 0.5% in 2012. The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development revised downwards its forecast on the
Bulgaria Blames Schengen Failure on Romania and EU Populism. Bulgarian
officials have blamed the country's latest
country’s economic growth to 0.5% in failure to join the Schengen Agreement
New CEO Possibly Needed for State Airliner Tarom. The
would-be CEO of flag air carrier Tarom, Heinrich Vystoupil, has reportedly refused to take the job.
2012, citing the eurozone crisis, the lower farming output and the political uncertainty. Read more. on Romania's upcoming Co-operation and Verification Mechanism report and on "internal political debates" in some EU countries. Read more.
Analysis: Weekly Economic Update
The public debt increased by 11.6% y/y to RON231.7bn (EUR51.9bn) or 37.8% of the year’s projected GDP (RON
612.5bn) at the end of August. Gross financing needs estimated for 2012 are: (i) budget deficit: RON11.7bn (the figure is due to Ministry of Public Finance; IMF has a slightly different figure of RON13.6bn); (ii) refinancing of public debt (based on government securities issued until October 26, 2012): RON50.7bn. The Ministry of Public Finance has been authorized by GoR to sell debt worth between EUR500 million and EUR1.5 billion via a new Eurobond issue on international markets. Difficulties in observing the end-December NFA target are expected due to delays of reimbursement of EU structural funds. On domestic market the yields decreased. Read the complete article on
Strategy, Partnership, Dialogue
EC Position Paper for 2014-2020. The position paper of the EC on the development of Partnership Agreement and Programmes in Romania for the next programming period will be officially presented November 5 in Bucharest. Francois Rantrua will attend the presentation. It highlights the key challenges and priorities of the country from EC's point of view. The next steps will be monitored by the CMU and updates will be provided, as they will impact the WB activities in Romania. Read the paper.
Assistance on Assessing the Conflict of Interest in Public Procurement. A meeting between the Ministry of
European Affairs and the World Bank was organized on October 23, 2012 in order to discuss the potential Bank’s
assistance to GoR for assessing the conflict of interest in public procurement. The Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban, participated in the discussions and emphasized the need for assistance in the context of imminent presuspension letters of the European Commission. In this sense, the Bank mobilized a team with support from the INT and Procurement departments. A Bank mission is expected to come to Bucharest by mid-November to further develop the scope of activities.
The Need for Reforms - Op.Ed. State Secretary, Claudiu Doltu, expresses his point of view with regard to the necessity of implementing a new generation of reforms in Romania. Read the full op-ed.
Portfolio
First Joint Monthly Meeting on RAS Activities. The meeting took place on October 26, being the first of the planned series of joint meetings with the representatives of the Government (Ministry of Public Finance, General Secretariat of the Government and Ministry of European Affairs) and the CMU to discuss the tools and processes for monitoring the Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) as part of the reforms agenda and to check the progress made in preparing and implementing the RAS.
Round Table on Getting People in from the Shadow. A round table event, organized by the Country Office, on the
report: "In From the Shadow: Integrating Europe's Informal Labor", will take place on November 1, 2012 at the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection. The event will enable consultations between invited representatives of IFIs, local UN agencies, CSO, trade unions, academia and Government on addressing the issues emerging from an extensive informal employment and the shadow economy in Europe. Download the report or read a feature in
Rehabilitated City Hall, County Library and Emergency Hospital. Three new objectives have been reached through
the Hazard Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness project, jointly financed by the World Bank and GoR. The works were performed under Component B: Seismic Risk Reduction of the project and resulted in the following modernized and consolidated municipal buildings:
Adjud City Hall, Vrancea County
Duiliu Zamfirescu County Library, Focșani, Vrancea County
Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children „Grigore Alexandrescu”, Bucharest
Working Together
Together in ECA. The ECA Region Townhall Meeting took place October 24. The meeting was hosted by Phillipe Le Houerou and all Country Offices were connected by VC.
Time Change in Europe. Closer to DC for One Week. During October 29 – November 2, the time differential
between Europe and DC will be 6 hours instead of 7. Europe has switched back to standard time October, 28, 2012 at 2 a.m. by moving the clocks back one hour. The US and Canada will change back to standard time on November 4, 2012 at 2 a.m. A tool like the World Meeting Planner can help in scheduling next audio/video/web conference with colleagues in other countries.
Dare to Disagree. Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counter-intuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers - and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. The former CEO of five businesses, Margaret Heffernan explores the all-too-human thought patterns - like conflict avoidance and selective blindness - that lead managers and organizations astray. Enjoy the video.
Communication Combating Nutrient Pollution and Raising Awareness. Kosuke Anan, Social Development Specialist, and Daniel
Kozak, EXT, visited Albești, in Argeș county, to observe the Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project information caravan at work, as well as the infrastructure investments in the locality: a sewage system for the Roma community, individual platforms, and the communal platform that would contribute towards reducing nutrient discharges to water bodies in the village.
Celebration at Lotru Ciunget HPP. Hidroelectrica celebrated 40 years of Lotru hydroelectric power plant’s operation on October 19, 2012. The Bank has contributed to the operation of this plant through rehabilitation works.
Knowledge Management
Maximizing Mobile for Development. "Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile" flagship report is discussed on October 30, at 12:30 p.m. (D.C. time). The event can be watched online and a recording of the session will also be available post-event. If you have the chance, attend the event to be provided with an
overview of the report and with a review of the opportunities that mobile applications bring to the Bank’s operational
work. Learn more.
Get the Scoop. Learn how to use the Bank’s social collaboration tool and make your job easier through the great selflearning video tutorials and how-to resources from the Scoop Help Center. Start practicing in the Reimbursable Advisory Services Group. Contact Beatrice Gabor.
Exploring the IMF e-Library. The IMF eLibrary is available to all Bank staff.
Please send your Mission and Events Schedule updates to [email protected].
Your contributions to the internal newsletter are kindly appreciated at [email protected] and [email protected].
Next Missions & Events
Dates
October 17 – November 2 October 22 – 31
Purpose
Public Investment Framework
CESAR Implementation Support Mission Gabriel Ioniță, Mika Torhonen, Nadia
Badea, Kosuke Anan, Fernando Galeana,
Team Lead/Team
Bernard Myers Valeria Nikolaeva, Bogdan Constantinescu, Viorela Voinea, Anthony Lamb
- October 23 – November 27
- RAS Assistance to the Ministry of
- Kenneth Gwilliam, David Rudge, Martha
Transport and Infrastructure to Strengthen Lawrence Strategic Planning in the Transport Sector
- October 27 – November 3
- RAS West Region project
- Mariana Iootty
- October 29 – November 6
- Tax Administration Modernization Project Bernard Meyers, Stella Ilieva, Carlos
Ferreira, William Hebb
- November 1
- Informality Report Presentation to GoR,
PMUs, Academia
Richard Florescu, Daniel Kozak
- November 4 – 9
- SASMP Implementation Support Mission Penny Williams, Gloria Rubio
- November 4 – 10
- Advisory Services for Strengthening
Public Debt Management
Antonio Velandia, Leandro Brufman
November 4 – 13 November 9 – 15 November 11- 14
- Joint IFI (IMF, EC, WB) Mission
- Pedro Rodriguez & Team
Judicial Reform Project
Implementation Support Mission
StAR Engagement on Capacity Building for the Ministry of Justice and the Institute of Magistracy
Klaus Decker & Team Jacinta Oduor, Ruxandra Costache
- December 12
- RER EU11 Launch
Cătălin Păuna
For more details, check out the updated Missions and Events in the SharePoint calendar (use Windows login credentials).