Guest speaks against corruption

Romanian authorities must boost privatisation, improve the general business environment, deal with corruption and secure transparency, says US Ambassador to Bucharest Michael Guest.

“I had a talk with the Prime Minister about the relations between the United States and Romania. The Premier clearly said that he would like to see a stronger strategic partnership and I share his opinion,” the ambassador said.

“We are working in various fields, such as preparing Romania for NATO membership. Another aspect is sustained economic reform, especially the privatisation programme, not merely privatisation as a goal itself, but in order to bring new technologies and turn loss-making companies into profitable ones. Privatisation must be stimulated under transparency conditions, especially since there are many Romanian companies that stand to gain from the privatisation process. These are the sectors we are working on,” he added.

Another problem brought up by the American official is the general business environment.

“It takes up to 50-60 days to register a company in Romania, while this process takes only one day in America. This complicated procedure and the periodical and unannounced legislation changes, as well as corruption, are issues affecting the business environment. It is very important for Romania’s future and for our partnership that this problem should be solved, but I believe that the Prime Minister is very determined to contribute to its solving,” Guest says.

“I do believe that the Romanian Government has made progress in Army reform, especially at the management level, by increasing the army budget, improving the coordination between decision-making ministries in the field of national security and the privatisation measures. There are significant performances in many sectors – even better than I expected when I came here – but defence is not the sector that still needs work,” Guest stated.

According to Guest, Romania must share the same values as its Western allies, namely eliminate corruption and secure transparency. “It is very important for Romania to have a good relation with Russia,” Michael Guest maintains.