Romania - The Bazaar for the Cheap Nations

Romania comes 27th in the world ranking of the greatest 30 goods’ importers of the Globe, according to the World Trade Organization. The value of the goods imported by Romania went over 40 billion USD, 24% more than in 2004. As for the exports, our country did not even make the first 30 countries. The conclusion is clear: we bring in the country much more merchandise than we are able to send outside the borders.

This phenomenon shows the kind of economy we have. It is also clear that we are yet to find our place in the economical world space, that we are still looking and that our merchandise didn’t quite convince the foreign clients about their place in the world trade circuit.

We import because we consume, and consuming tends to become our national sport, but not producing or saving, as we should do due to our fragile economy. We are all in a state of illusive abundance, of superficial welfare, created by the complex offer of services and products (and the quality is not as great as the complexity). This way, we miss out an essential economical detail: there is no progress without strategy, there is no profit without risk and investments, there is no other alternative for poverty than intelligent work, which brings the actual welfare. I am not referring to the outlawed richness, which abide by other principles than the ones of transparency, which are always valid.

The percentages presented by the World Trade Organization brings back an issue very debated upon during the 90s and abandoned nowadays simply because the political issues and the day by day living make it impossible to have a total view on the economy. This would allow us to push the brake in the case of consumption and accelerate the efficiency.

Our institutions don’t raise a finger to protect our brands or to brand or re-brand the ones that brought a shade of fame in the past. Fame and money, because this is the symbol of success in business. There are tens of Romanian companies or companies with mixed stock that got to be more appreciated abroad than in Romania.

The selection of the merchandise and of the services that the Romanians get to benefit from shouldn’t be made by the dealer nor by the buyer, but by a national strategy, which I previously and which is put aside by all the people that shouldn’t.

We produce all kinds of goods from clothes to food, from steel to cars and motor boats, from wines to cement and we still don’t manage to enter the markets of the European Unions, where the competition is even harder. You should not understand that I am for the exclusive promotion and selling of the goods of any kind made in Romania. However, I don’t think it would be bad to impose a certain priority and to sketch certain national advantages, in an European legislative environment, especially for the industries on which the economical and social development of some regions depends.

Translated by Sorin Balan