Romanian Freight Carriers Want The Country To Improve Roads

Romanian businessmen say the country lost 2% of its gross domestic product per year because of the poor condition the roads are in. The Association of Businessmen in Romania, or AOAR, said would compute the loss incurred each year to present it to the public.

The poor condition of roads also reflects in the high number of road accidents, half of which they cause. Of Romania’s 79,000 kilometers, 85% have their asphalt coating long overdue. Half of road bridges are in imminent danger to collapse. And on the country’s 15,000 kilometers of national roads, the Romanian freight carriers can make 80,000 kilometers per year, as opposed to their colleagues in the European Union who carry freight over 140,000 kilometers per year.

"Each unspent dollar into repairing the roads costs the National Union of Road Freight Carriers in Romania, or UNTRR, between 3 and 4 dollars per kilometer of damaged road," said Romeo Medan, the deputy-president of the professional association.

The UNTRR says EUR18 billion are needed for repairing and upgrading Romania’s roads, and would like the accise on gasoline to go into it.

The AOAR also demanded the government to impose a six-month moratorium on privatizations, said Constantin Bostina, deputy president of AOAR. "We should not sell companies for the value of the land there are built on, or for their value as scrap metal, when we decide the development of this or that industry," said Bostina.

The to-do list of Romanian businessmen also reads:

a speedy approval by the executive of a strategy to lower Romania’s dependency on imports of energy resources;

an urgent announcement by the government of a list of major projects to be completed in partnership between the public and the private sector;

a list of actions to be taken by Romania to fall in line, starting with 2006, with the Lisbon Agenda;

an improvement of the business environment with having a stable Fiscal Code for at least three years, and a Work Code enabling more flexibility on the labor market;

a continued development of the regulatory framework for getting financing, including from non-banking sources;

a rise in the country’s competitiveness with supporting and using the results of the research and development sector.

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Translated by Anca Paduraru