Victory in Judo World Cup
Romanian judoka Corina Caprioriu won the 57-kilogram category event within the Judo World Cup in Warsaw, a competition that took place on Saturday and Sunday, Agerpres reports. Andreea Chitu, another Romanian judoka who took part in the 57-kilogram category event, finished third. Romania was also represented by the following judokas: Carmen Bogdan (48-kilogram category), Andreea Catuna (52-kilogram category) and Monica Ungureanu (52-kilogram category). 193 athletes from all 5 Continental Judo Unions took part in the event.
Fencing: Second place in Plovdiv
Romanian men’s sabre team finished second after losing to Italy in the World Cup final in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), score 32-45. The Romanian team (fencers Rares Dumitrescu, Florin Zalomir, Tiberiu Dolniceanu and Cosmin Hanceanu) defeated Poland in the last-16 stage (45-42), Russia in the quarterfinals (45-38) and Ukraine in the semifinals (45-31). Germany’s Nicolas Limbach won the individual competition. Rares Dumitrescu lost to Russia’s Alexei Iakimenko in the last-16 stage (14-15) and finished on ninth.
Russia sets women’s 4x800m relay world record
A World record in the women’s 4x800m Relay highlighted the final day of the Russian Indoor Championships in Moscow on Sunday, iaaf.org reports. A quartet representing Moscow clocked 8:12.41, well inside the previous standard of 8:14.53 set by another Russian quartet at the 2008 national indoor championships in Moscow. Tatyana Andrianova led off with a 2:05.80 leg, with Oksana Spasovhodskaja following with a 2:03.70 carry. Yelena Kofanova clocked 2:02.90 before handing off to Yvgeniya Zinurova, the world leader, who closed in 1:58.01.
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CEZ Romania invests EUR 52 M in power distribution
CEZ Romania will invest this year EUR 52 M in electricity distribution, CEO Jan Veskrna said yesterday. According to the same source, power demand will increase by up to 2 pc in 2010, Mediafax reports. Czech group CEZ controls in Romania several firms split from Electrica Oltenia, the former Electrica subsidiary in charge with electricity distribution, a task it took over from the state in 2005. Last year, the company invested EUR 26.4 M in power grids and allotted EUR 378 M to projects of generating electricity through windmills.
Duster model launched in Geneva today
Dacia launches its first SUV, the Duster model, today in Geneva. The car could have a significant impact on Romania’s SUV market, especially since it is EUR 3,000-5,000 cheaper than other models, as HotNews notes. Duster has high chances to become the best-sold SUV in Romania as early as this year by taking advantage of the fact that competing models’ sales have registered massive drops. Nevertheless, a part of clients could change their minds when seeing that Duster’s engines are less powerful, while others could prefer traditional SUV brands such as Hyundai and Kia. Dacia did not announce the prices for Romania, however they are expected to start from approximately EUR 12,000, VAT included, and to reach EUR 16-17,000 for a car with full options and 4×4 traction. Duster’s competitors include Skoda Yeti, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Nissan Qashqai, Fiat Sedici and Suzuki SX4. The price is Dacia’s main trump card, considering that competing models have a starting price EUR 3,000-5,000 higher.
Dacia, highest number of sales in France
Dacia sold 14,761 units in the first two months of 2010, up by 118 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the Association of French Car Manufacturers, quoted by Mediafax. That was the highest growth on a market that grew 16 per cent last year. In the first two months of this year, Dacia had a market share of 4.2 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent the same time last year. In February 2010, its passenger car sales stood at 7,199 units, in contrast to 3,364 units in the same month last year. That gave Dacia a market share of four per cent. In February 2009, it had a market share of 2.2 per cent. Volkswagen is the foreign car manufacturer that registered the highest sales, namely 35,160 units in the first two months of 2010, a level identical to the one reported in the same period last year. A total of 351,404 new vehicles were sold in France. An obvious success was scored by Dacia in Spain as well, where the brand’s registrations increased more than twice in the first two months of the year, to 2,625 units, while the local market advanced 32.9 per cent, to 161,411 vehicles, according to data made public yesterday by the Spanish Association of Car and Truck Producers. In January-February 2009, 1,176 Dacia vehicles were registered in Spain. The Romanian brand ranks 17th as regards the number of registrations in the first two months of the year, out of a total of 65 car makers.
Authorities eye other expenditures for Bucharest southern beltway
The state-run National Expressway Company (CNADNR) will pay RON 2.14 M, without VAT, to WSP Group/IPTANA to monitor works for widening a 10 km segment of Bucharest southern beltway to four lanes, Mediafax reports. The contract is financed from the state budget and targets consultancy services for monitoring the projection and execution of the segment between km. 33 and 43. The duration of the contract is 84 months, of which 24 months are allocated for execution of the works, while 60 months represent the guarantee.
In selecting the winning bid, the technical proposal had a weight of 80 per cent, and the financial one, of 20 per cent. This segment’s execution, worth EUR 26.86 M, was assigned to a consortium consisting of the firms Euroconstruct Trading ’98, controlled by businessman Dan Besciu, and Romstrade, held by Nelu Iordache.
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Moody’s: Romanian bank system
perspectives are negative
Romania’s banking system perspectives appear to be negative because of the difficult economic conditions triggered by financial recession, but the banks were however able to absorb shocks, a report of the financial rating agency Moody’s shows, quoted by Mediafax. The agency also notes that the financial support from the IMF and the European Union and the Government’s reform measures have lessened macroeconomic pressures. The system’s negative perspective expresses the opinion of the agency regarding fundamental crediting conditions in the relevant sector over the next 12-18 months, and does not represent a prediction regarding measures for the bank ratings improvement or lowering. Most of the Romanian banks belong to European banking groups which assure the necessary funding for Romanian branches, the report also shows. Moody’s points out that, in spite of the difficult conditions, the IMF and the European Union funds and the commitments of the new Government for economic reforms have lessened not only the macroeconomic pressures, but also the significant fears regarding liquidity level and solvency of the Romanian banking system.
Generali Asigurari subscriptions
up 20 pc in 2009
Insurance firm Generali Asigurari last year subscribed a total volume of premiums of RON 501.5 M, 20 per cent more than the previous year, the company said in a press release yesterday. General insurance rose 26 per cent, to RON 417.2 M, while life polices reached RON 84.4 M, down one per cent against 2008. In the general insurance segment, general civil liability polices increased by 39 per cent, while fire and calamity ones by 18 per cent. In the life insurance portfolio, group polices reported an advance of 18 per cent, while individual insurance was slightly affected by the unfavourable economic environment, unemployment rate growth, blockage of personal and professional projects, and the psychological crisis, the press release says. “Given that the life insurance market dropped around 10 per cent in the first nine months of 2009, we believe that managing to remain at the 2008 level is a real success. For 2010, one of our main objectives is to revitalize this segment, insufficiently developed in Romania, both as regards diversification of product offers and national distribution,” Generali Asigurari general manager Marie Kovarova said in the release.
INS: Biggest labour demand
in healthcare, social assistance
Job vacancy rate was of 0.5 per cent in the last three months of 2009, down 0.3 pc from the previous quarter, and 1.03 pc from the same period of 2008, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS) quoted by Mediafax. As an effect of the economic crisis, job vacancies in Romania continued the falling trend which began in the last quarter of 2008, the INS said in a release. The biggest labour demand was registered in health and social assistance (1.48 per cent), public administration (1.09 per cent) and in financial brokerage and insurance (0.95 per cent). The lowest vacancy rate was in the mining industry (0.05 per cent), hotels and restaurants (0.06 per cent), real estate transactions (0.11 per cent). On regional level, the biggest vacancy rate was reported in the northeast of the country (0.97 per cent), followed by the west (0.60 per cent). The southeast (0.21 per cent) and the northwest (0.32 per cent) reported the lowest values.
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Boc rules out
sacking UDMR from government
All scenarios suggesting UDMR’s imminent removed from government are mere beautiful dreams of the Opposition’s, PM Emil Boc said yesterday. He also added that inviting ex-PSD figures Marian Sarbu and Cristian Diaconescu to become member of the cabinet was out of the question.
‘Such things are probably beautiful dreams of the Opposition’s. The government is stable, we have a majority, the country needs political and economic stability and we have such stability. A scenario like this has never been and will not be on our agenda, at least not to our mind’, Boc said after being asked to comment on the hypothesis of the PDL-UDMR protocol being denounced and on the event of building a parliament majority only with the help of the independents’ group.
As for the rumours that ex-PSD leaders Cristian Diaconescu and Marian Sarbu may be included to the government, Boc said ‘at present we are having no problems with the way in which the government functions, the team is on duty, we carry on, what will happen in other parties is the sole business of those parties’. ‘I have not discussed this with anyone’ the prime-minister stressed out, according to Mediafax.
Diaconescu sheds light into his reasons for leaving PSD
‘The start of the Congress dumbfounded me. At that moment, I had the feeling we were wasting one of the few chances we had to show what we wanted to show,’ Cristian Diaconescu said, speaking of the reasons behind his departure from the Social Democrat Party (PSD). According to Realitatea TV, the fact of party members being unable to carry on along an axis of democratic order in PSD was another reason for his leaving the party. ‘Any public policy-related drive has been relinquished and it all ended into a congress pro or against Geoana,’ Diaconescu also said, blaming his departure on his personal feeling of, sometimes excessive, polarization he felt. ‘The debate became all too personal, to what extent somebody could prove useful to PSD.’
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