Vital Statistic - Romania

2001 2002   Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Production ($m) 1968 2023 2155 1871 2033 2053 2220 2210 2180 2268 2457 2391 Foreign trade balance ($m) -145 -508 -413 -590 -261 -242 -263 -100 -100 -430 -170 -236 Unemployment rate (%) 7.8 7.7 8.0 8.6 12.4 13.2 13.0 11.1 10.2 9.6 9.0 8.5 FDI ($m) 5.2 3.2 3.4 3.8 4.8 6.2 - 6.9 - - - - Source: NIS

Average net salaries throughout the economy decreased from $118.8 in July to $117.8 in August 2002. The unemployment rate reached 8.5% by the end of August 2002.

The trade balance deficit increased in July and August by $170 and $236 million respectively, totalling $2,274 million for the first eight months of 2002.

Investment Update      as of 02-06-03 15:38

Since 1991, cumulative foreign direct investment had reached just under $8.7 billion at the end of October 2002, up from $7.9 billion by the end of 2001. The most important investing countries in Romania for November 2002 are shown below: Source: CCIR

Business and Privatisation News      as of 02-06-03 15:39

IBM Romania Reports Turnover Boost IBM Romania has achieved all financial targets for last year, with revenues gaining 25.6% against a year before, twice the growth rate of the Romanian IT market as forecasted by IDC. The company's biggest contract last year was worth USD 12 million while revenues from server sales rose 17.2%. The results are also good for the service field, which, along with the software one, account for 40% of the turnover. The Business Innovation Services part, having the highest added value among the products, saw an 18% boost last year. Company-wise, the highest rate of revenues was generated by SMEs, companies in the public sector, utilities and production companies followed by those in the banking system and telecommunications. Romtelecom's privatization contract to be signed The government might enact the contract on continuing Romtelecom's privatization by the end of January, and soon after the two sides involved in the trade might also sign it. The talks were finalized, all details were clarified and the contract only needs to be enacted by the government. The state's "golden share" in Romtelecom has been turned into a normal share, however without losing any right deriving from it, as the European Court of Justice last year ruled that such mechanisms are infringing a provision of the EU Treaty on the free circulation of capitals.

Internet Watch      as of 02-06-02 15:45

Evolution of the number of hosts connected to web in Romania   Dec-2002 Nov-2002 Variation % variation Hosts counted 41,223,199 40,708,078 +515,121 -1.3 Duplicates counted 22,585,344 22,308,833 +276,511 +1.2 Real hosts 18,637,855 18,399,245 +238,610 -1.3 Source: Ripe NCC The number of DNS in Romania reached 18,637,855 by December 2002 according to Ripe NCC. E-readiness According to an EIU 60-country survey Romania ranks 43rd in its readiness for e-commerce and its potential for integration in the e-business economy. With a total score of 5.2, Romania is ahead of Russia, but behind Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. EIU took into account the general business environment and connectivity. "Internet is global but local conditions weigh harder", was one of the conclusions drawn by the survey. "Anglophone countries tend to have a head-start in e-business because so much Internet content is in English". The B2C e-commerce market in the year 2001 is estimated to have reached close to $2 million in Romania, $8.5 million in Hungary and $16 million in Czech Republic. The number of credit cards reached 2,000,000 at the end of November 2001. E-government Amongst the projects that were proposed by MCTI, "Multimedia centres for citizens" aims to create and make available to individuals the technical resources needed for access to electronic information. For this project a system needs to be developed that would allow the citizens, using the Internet, to access the public activity of the local and central public administration as well as the normative laws that are in effect. The final stage of the project is considered to be the development of a network of such centres in every community with a population over 5,000 people. The unique ID for public elected officials using smart cards and e-signature is a project that would replace the current ID's of the personnel and would allow controlled and monitored access to the computer systems of the public administration. "E-tax-payment" hopes to overcome the delays in the current financial systems as well as to reduce the cost of running it. In this project citizens would be able to pay their taxes to the state from the comfort of their home. The "Joined up financial system for the management of MCTI" aims to create a general database on which the user could run queries and run what-if scenario questions. Other projects that are looked at relate to electronic ways of being able to change the address, census, health, legislation, public order, on-line education, filling out tax forms and online payments, changing drivers licenses or extending them and many more.