Mr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group
I want to thank you very much Prime Minister Ponta for the very fruitful and helpful discussion. We are of the same mind on so many important issues, and I especially welcome his great focus on implementation and execution. We know that many Governments have good policies; many Governments have financing for projects,
, but it is the execution that we have promised to help Prime Minister Ponta, thinking about all the experience we have from over the world, in helping him to be more effective.
Standing here, in Bucharest on this day is a privilege to celebrate your country’s achievements of EU membership of the just six years ago.
I like to begin by thanking all for their efforts, especially Prime Minister, for many years, the World Bank Group has been a strategic adviser to the Government in implementing the important reform agenda in Romania, in its efforts to join the EU, this was prior to 2007.
Our partnership today is built on that.
For many years, we have been a strategic Adviser to Romania, and we will continue in that role. What I wanted to stress: you know our work in providing advice and it is not only our important knowledge but we have been working in so many countries, that we are bringing the experience of other countries here. What I want to stress is that we have learnt a tremendous amount from working with the Romanian authorities and the political and economic development over the past twenty years is impressive and deserves widespread attention for its accomplishments.
Romania has made huge steps in growing its economy and the good news is that the average income for Romanians rose from a quarter of EU average to almost half of the EU average, its market is open, its institutions are reformed.
Even better news is that the income level of the bottom 40 percent of the Romanian population has been increasing at a faster rate, than of the overall population. Just last month, we had our Governors meeting in Washington D.C, and we had two goals: one is to end poverty, absolute poverty by 2030, and also to boost shared prosperity, the share of the income growth of the bottom 40 percent. Romania has been an example in this area. We are very happy that along with the European Commission and the IMF, we participated in the macro-economic stabilization of Romania through our financial and technical assistance.
The good news is that the fiscal deficit is down from 7, 3 percent in 2009 to 2, 5 percent in 2012, the total public debt in GDP is 35 percent, compared to EU average of 83 percent, and in the last three years, growth has been positive, inflation has been down towards the target of the Central Bank.
Romania’s progress in stabilizing the economy would have been notable at any time but it is especially impressive given an uncertain external environment and the continual crisis in the EU area.
Despite the great progress that we have been seeing in this country, of course Romania remains the country in the EU with the highest level of poverty, more than 30 percent living on less than five dollars per day.
I just wanted to make note that at the level of the poverty, a special concern of the Prime Minister and everyone in this country knows that, I will be meeting with the Roma population today and I would like to cause special attention to the situation of Roma and let me make one point very clear: investing in healthcare, investing in education, investing in social protection of the poorest members of the society is not handout, these are strategic investments in human capital that will form the foundation of economic growth of the future and I am very happy to see the Prime Minister and the Romanian Government’s commitment to continuing to invest, especially in the Roma population.

The Government has been focusing on developing a growth agenda; in practice this means drawing a more competitive, faster growing and inclusive economy that shares its prosperity to other people of Romania. We believe achieving this vision would require deeper structural reforms in many sectors of the economy, in the public administration.
We also believe that the Government will also have to hold the course in fiscal consolidation which will require firm results to build on gains made so far.
To ensure the growth continues to benefit the poor, we believe that Romania should maintain flexible labor markets, which facilitates the movement from low to high productivity jobs, and upgrades the skills of its labor force. Establishing a simple business environment will allow entrepreneurs to create jobs and add value to the economy, but adequate social protection will also be needed for the most vulnerable.
As Romania strives for sustainable growth and to catch up with many EU countries on living standards, productivity and competitiveness, the challenge would be to manage change which is always difficult.
In these efforts, I would like to reaffirm the Bank’s readiness to partner with the Government of Romania, on the goal of inclusive growth and shared prosperity, and let me just end by saying that I am very encouraged by my meetings with Prime Minister, with other officials here in Romania and I believe that the commitment to do the right things, to ensure the future growth of Romania and to include even the poorest is going to be a signal and an example for the rest of Europe and the world. Thank you.

PM Victor Ponta: (...) I would like, first, to express my satisfaction and joy that we have as guests in Bucharest, President Kim, the Vice-President Le Houerou, and the rest of the delegation, at the highest level, representing the World Bank .
In the past 20 years, the World Bank has been a strategic partner for Romania and a friend in the efforts our country has made to speed up the convergence processes with the EU, in order to increase competitiveness, to modernize institutions and, especially, to find the fairest ways of distributing prosperity, to preserve social balance.
I would like to express a special sense of gratitude for the fact that the World Bank as an institution was with Romania and in difficult times too. And I mentioned that last year, just few weeks after I took office as Prime Minister, the World Bank made available to Romania a credit line of one billion euro, which provided a fiscal and budget stability and safety that Romania greatly needed. I am very glad that 2013 finds Romania in relation to its international partners as a stable, predictable country, a country with a positive growth, certainly satisfactory in relation to the average in the region and Europe, but a country which is still in need of modernization and social balance. From this point of view, assistance programs and collaboration of Romanian institutions with the World Bank are much needed and welcome. And I want to give just three examples. First, agreement on the modernization of the tax administration system, an agreement worth 70 million euro, with an interest rate below 1%, which I hope to have finally resulted in a more efficient, more friendly Romanian tax system to those companies that pay their taxes honestly and much tougher, effectively combating tax evasion and bureaucracy.
I also want to mention a very important program to modernize the welfare system, a loan of 500 million euros, with the same interest, less than 1%, as here, the Romanian Government fully shares World Bank’ strategy and option to fight poverty, to maintain social balance that modern society so much needs. We aim that the benefits of this economic growth and the economic recovery of Romania, is distributed more equitably, so that the most vulnerable population groups benefit too and I speak here of pensioners, rural population, the unemployed, the youth, representatives of the Roma minority, those who mostly need to benefit further assistance programs and equitable distribution. We are working together with the World Bank to modernize social assistance programs and I want to make this announcement, the first: as of July 1, we can increase social aid to offset rising energy prices. The minimum wage will increase on average by 13%, in two installments, and family support allowance will increase on average by 30%.
Another extremely important program and in which we had unacceptable delays pertains to the modernization of the justice system infrastructure. Here, we have a loan usage level below 50% and, certainly, for the judiciary in Romania, the completion of this project worth 110 million will be not only a necessity but also a great help. I want us to put forward to the World Bank the partnerships Romania needs to modernize its administration, for this huge challenge that is across the world, the upgrading and efficiency of the healthcare system, and a situation specific to Romania, namely an analysis of the potential of the mining sector in Romania, to see how we can blend the economic potential, jobs creation, with environment preservation and compliance with European and international environmental standards.
Finally, I just want to publicly make a special request to the World Bank President, given his presence here. A Prime Minister is efficient if he manages to implement, not only to build or put forward public policies. The problem of the Romanian administration, equal to that of all other administrations is the implementation of some programmes and extremely good strategies and I requested President Kim a special aid, for a young Prime Minister and new in that office, that of having within the Prime Minister Chancellery, an implementation unit of public policies, an unit that proved its efficiency in assisting other Prime Ministers, and other Governments in the world. I hope that in the coming years, Romania and the Romanian Government are more efficient in public policies implementation, and here, the experience and support from the World Bank are absolutely unmatched.
Thank you once again for your presence, I am very glad that we have important guests, so that we can present a stable and predictable country, and I am sure that together, we can do a lot for the future of the country.