- Category: English
- Date: 2026-03-03 12:09:11
- Foto: CRISTIAN NISTOR / AGERPRES FOTO
Romania must build a rainy-day fund, as the state needs resources it can mobilise very quickly, presidential adviser Radu Burnete said on Tuesday.
Burnete participated, at the Victoria Governmental Palace, in the debate ‘Romania: economic growth based on competitiveness,’ organised by the Government in partnership with the World Bank Group.
‘I appreciate your optimism, but I am not entirely convinced that we have escaped the middle income trap. I believe we still have much to do to ensure that, even if nominally we have climbed slightly above it, we do not fall back quickly. Then, if I look at what the world looks like today, we see that only recently a new war has begun which affects us. We support the Government’s efforts to reduce the public deficit as quickly as possible and I believe we must be aware that we can no longer afford such deficits. Romania must build a rainy-day fund because you never know where the next crisis will erupt from and the state needs resources it can mobilise very quickly. If it does not have them, it becomes highly vulnerable,’ the presidential adviser said.
He also mentioned several main areas in which the state will have to use the funds it has.
‘The first concerns defence, and I do not think this needs further explanation, this is the new world. The second concerns these emergencies that arise and the need for a financial toolbox to react quickly, and the third area I see relates to social disparities in order to increase social cohesion and to invest in education. I believe you are the authors of many of the studies showing that this is the investment which brings the greatest long-term benefits. The rest must come from the private sector and I believe what Romania needs, to use an English term, is a supply-side revolution. So we need to set the private sector in motion in a way we have not done for a very long time,’ he argued.
Burnete underlined the importance of Romanian capital as well as the need for foreign investment.
‘That means Romanian capital must do far more. We need private equity ecosystems and to use second-pillar pension funds more wisely to catalyse economic growth. We need many, many foreign investments and to put an end to this type of rhetoric that ‘we are not selling our country.’ Romania will not be able to grow on domestic capital alone, even if for the first time in history we can say we have such capital,’ he said.
The presidential adviser also stressed the urgency of implementing administrative reform: ‘We no longer have time to debate whether or not to carry out administrative reform. It must be done, we must cut red tape and I appreciate that the Government is already taking some steps in this direction.’
‘From my point of view, this is the equation for the next decade. The state must focus on the few priorities where the private sector cannot intervene. Otherwise, we must remove all barriers so that the private economy can generate the resources needed both for the state and for society. The final direction I would underline, in this same vein, is that we need the European Union to become a more significant global player. So yes, to the integration of the financial market, the energy markets and the capital market. If Europe remains fragmented, Romania’s economy will suffer,’ Burnete said. AGERPRES (RO – writing by: Daniel Florea; EN – writing by: Adina Panaitescu)
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