MP Sebastian Burduja: “Romania has probably the biggest development opportunity in a generation”

“What we see through all the data coming in is the Romanian economy performing above expectations as more resilient, more diverse. We saw not just S&P’s positive outlook on the Romanian economy, I think the first positive change in quite a few years, but we also saw the economic data coming in,” Sebastian Burduja, Vice-Chairperson, Committee for Budget, Finance, and Banks, Chamber of Deputies said during the Financial Forum 2021 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“We have investments that have grown by close to 30 percent in January and February compared to the same period in 2020. In fact, most of the economic data for the first three months of the year are better than in 2020.

I think that’s remarkable by any measure. Also, revenues to the budget were 4 percent higher in January and February compared to last year and of course EU funds which are worth highlighting.

Romania has probably the biggest development opportunity in a generation, 84 billion Euro from the EU in various forms.

I think the news are good. I want to say a big thank you to all the Romanian entrepreneurs, banks, and financial institutions for everything they did throughout this crisis. I think the way they have responded is absolutely amazing. Please count on us politicians to help or at least not screw things up too badly like before, at least get out of your way and let the economy keep growing through your efforts.

We’re obviously continuing a lot of the good programs that have proved themselves worthy during the pandemic, during the initial phase of the crisis. Postponing some dues to the state budget has worked out quite well, has enabled companies to keep functioning.

In a recent conversation with the head of the fiscal agency, she assured me as an MP and as a fellow public servant that all these measures will basically continue throughout the year including for the hardest hit industries like the hotels and restaurants.

One very successful program that I’d love to mention because I was involved in the Supervisory Board there was with the Guarantee Fund, and it worked very well with banks, many financial institutions in Romania. We issued guarantees of 20 billion RON last year and this will continue this year. It has the approval of the Economic Commission, so we have over 28 billion RON planned for 2021. The feedback from the market has been quite strong and entrepreneurs are very happy to be able to rely on guarantees from the state to access funding in partnership with financial institutions.

We don’t have the best track record. When I say we I mean the public sector, Romanian Government, Romanian Parliament. Time and time again, politicians have come in and vastly changed the regulatory framework from one day to the next even on the last day of the year.

What we’ve tried to do since last year was to righten these wrongs, deregulate whenever we could, and ensure a stability and predictability of the environment. I think really that’s all we need. Romania is in an exceptional position. Very people grasp it right now. Look in the region, we have probably the strongest democracy, the most credible for sure with our American partners, with our European partners. It’s a stable democracy, it’s a strong system, the commitment from the Government is for a very stable regulatory framework.”

The Diplomat Bucharest organized Financial Forum event in online format, on April 21,2021. The conference joined leaders spearheading digital initiatives in their organizations in to offer insights into their digital transformation journey’s in fintech & banking, as well in capital markets and insurance.

The fast evolution of digital in all industries mirrors in the behaviours and innovations brought by banks,  financial institutions to meet the clients’ needs to abstain from overspending, navigate risks, and usually deal with their finances better. FinTech services and products are more and more designed for particular functions inside the financial ecosystem and customization is key to win more clients and portfolios.