The Foreign Investors’ Council (FIC) considers that the 5-6 per cent per year growth rates registered prior to the crisis will be difficult to reach in the absence of major reforms that would attract more investments and that would create more jobs. “Romania has competitive advantages it could use in order to obtain higher growth rates that, in their turn, would attract more investments, a virtuous circle being thus created. For this reason we believe Romania’s top priority should be to ensure sustainable economic growth,” reads a communiqué issued by the Council following a meeting between FIC members and Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu during a round table on fiscal policy issues.In this context, Daniel Chitoiu stated: “The model of Romania’s healthy economic development should also be based on putting to good use, especially through exports, the competitive advantages that Romania can obtain in industry, energy and agriculture.” On the fiscal level the imperative is the sustainability of public finances through the extension of the base of taxation, in the context of adopting a package of reforms of the fiscal system and the system of administering, controlling and collecting budget revenues. When it comes to the fiscal-budgetary strategy the changes have to start with a new approach towards the relationship between the state and the taxpayer. At the same time, FIC representatives expressed their openness towards contributing professional expertise to achieving this goal.Serban Toader, President of FIC’s Fiscal Policy Group, stated that “the elements necessary for such a fiscal policy are: devising a coherent medium and long term fiscal strategy featuring economic re-launch measures whose purpose would be both to hike budget revenues and to support the business environment; a better decisional transparency corroborated with maintaining and developing the partnership between authorities and taxpayers, especially through permanent and real dialogue with the private sector.” Daniel Anghel, Co-President of the Group of Fiscal Policy, stated that “FIC considers that a stable fiscal system is fundamental for attracting investments in Romania. In this sense, a transparent legislative and decisional framework is needed, one through which all new legislative measures can be first analyzed from the point of view of their economic impact by consulting and involving the business environment so that balanced solutions can be found.”
