No matter who the winner of the race for the new five-year term at Cotroceni might be, the list of priorities of someone who guarantees a good rule does not basically change.
Regardless of the political makeup the president of Romania will supervise, the risk of the public pension system collapsing in the medium-term because revenues from contributions in the current scheme are no longer covering pensions cannot be ignored. At the same time, any strategic plan for the next five years in view of overcoming the crisis and resuming steady growth cannot overlook the agricultural sector whose potential has been often mentioned by politicians but no decisions have been made to establish functional markets for its main products.
The next five-year term in Cotroceni should also see the accomplishment of the euro adoption target Romania undertook to attain at the time of its accession to the European Union, which politicians avoid talking about. The economy is already mostly “euro-ised”, with loans in euros prevailing over those in RON because they are much cheaper. Now it is up to the politicians to assume the costs of the decisions for a fast adjustment of the budget deficit as required if the January 1, 2015 date set for euro adoption is to be kept.
In the opinion of Florin Pogonaru, chairman of the Association of Business People in Romania (AOAR), at the top of the priorities list of the future president of Romania should be “the immediate, the important and the competency problem.”
“The immediate” means forming a Government and devising next year’s budget, Pogonaru says.
“The important” is the outlining of an accelerated growth plan to include infrastructure, agriculture, renewable energy and “everything we know has to be done”, reflected in multiannual budgets.
What the future president needs to keep in mind is competence in public administration, especially in local public administration, which has already shown bursts of overspending beyond and reason and sustainability, Pogonaru says.