As a result of the economic and, in particular, financial crisis the entire world economy is experiencing, the investment sector is one of the most affected areas of activity; the Romanian economic environment felt the full impact of this crisis, impact reflected by a significant decrease of the volume of direct investment in Romania.
In this context, the absorption of European funds (in particular of structural instruments and funds included in the Common Agricultural Policy) is one of the few engines of investment financing in general and investment in infrastructure in particular. Although this economic truth was one of the few on which economic analysts, international financial institutions and business environment achieved full consensus ever since the beginning of their 2007 – 2014 programming, the extremely low absorption – the lowest in the European Union – prevented the important positive impact that these financial resources could have on Romania’s economic growth from occurring. Moreover, the funds allocated by the Romanian Government for infrastructure projects must be used so as to maximize the economic impact.
In line with the mission that the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) undertook ever since its establishment – to serve as an active dialogue partner for the entire Romanian social and economic environment in the effort to identify the most adequate solutions for the progress of the Romanian economy as a whole – the FIC conducted a thorough analysis of the entire absorption process in order to identify the main causes that adversely affected the absorption process, and the deadlocks occurred in the public procurement process for investment projects financed from Romanian public funds.
Following this analysis, the public procurement system in Romania proved to be the main factor that led to the delay, blocking and even cancellation of major infrastructure development projects. The analysis identified the main weaknesses and deficiencies in the public procurement system and possible solutions to improve its operation.
FIC aims at raising the awareness of the public and decision-makers to urgently adopt solutions to improve the public procurement system in Romania, especially since Romania runs a major risk of losing EU funds if it fails to provide a “leap of absorption” as soon as possible.
The main actions to improve the operation of the Romanian public procurement system that the FIC proposes to the public are:
- Improving the regulatory framework for public procurement
- Improving the operation of the system’s institutional architecture
- Harmonizing institutional practices at system level
- Increasing system reliability and decreasing the volume of challenges
- Ensuring effective and efficient control of public procurement
- Reducing bureaucracy and accelerating processes within the public procurement system
- Improving the infrastructure of the (SEAP) system
- Increasing the administrative capacity of the system’s institutions
- Strengthening the regulatory and monitoring function of the market’s answer to public procurement
The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) is an association of the leading investors in Romania. The FIC was established in 1997 when it officially began its activity with 26 companies as members.
Today, the FIC has 123 member companies whose cumulated investments in Romania exceed EUR 35 billion representing approximately two thirds of the total foreign direct investment made since 1990.
The FIC includes multinational companies providing the Romanian economy with a variety of goods and services and creating almost 200,000 direct and indirect jobs.
In Top 10 largest companies by turnover, 8 companies are FIC members, and 37 member companies are included in Top 100 – as per the report “Major Companies in Romania” published in 2012, by IBP.
Foreign Investors Council (FIC) – www.fic.ro
