Radio România Internațional

Tag: Sovereign Development and Investment Fund

  • Government to create Sovereign Investment Fund

    Government to create Sovereign Investment Fund

    The Bucharest Government has passed an emergency decree setting up the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund, aimed at developing and starting businesses that are profitable for the Romanian state. Thus, the authorities plan to create instruments for financial investment or financial mediation of shares or stakes in profitable projects or companies, a segment that the Romanian financial market does not cover. These mechanisms should, on the one hand, have a multiplier effect in economy, for sustainable development, and on the other hand should catalyse or mobilise the available financial resources towards the real sector and profitable projects.



    The Funds purpose is not privatisation, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has explained. He has given assurances that the Fund will have a decisive contribution to Romanias economic development by providing an alternative source of funding important investment in infrastructure, industry and the capital market. Eugen Teodorovici details the type of funding available through the newly created fund:



    “Financing enterprises at various stages of development, start-ups included, financing Romanian companies of strategic importance and following the energy strategy, investing in industry and infrastructure projects, increasing the competitiveness of the Romanian economy, stimulating innovation and new technologies, creating jobs in a sustainable manner, developing the human and social capital in the long run, and last but not least, developing capital markets.”



    Minister Teodorovici has also said that the Fund will be organised as a Romanian shareholder company, with the organisation and functioning rules to be established at a later date, through another government decree. The state will have two representatives in the Funds board, out of a total of nine. Stipulated in the 2017-2020 governing programme and drawing on the experience of states such as France, Norway, Poland and Italy, the Sovereign Fund will mainly comprise profitable Romanian state-owned companies and will have a capital of some 2 billion euros. The Romanian minister has also said that these companies can be listed and sold on the Stock Exchange Market to the amount of 51%.



    Parliament initially passed a law on the setting up of the Sovereign Fund, which was later declared unconstitutional in the Constitutional Court that ruled that such fund cannot be set up by adopting a law in Parliament, but only through a Governments decree. On November 10 the Finance Ministry put up for public debate the framework project for the setting up of the Sovereign Fund and invoked an extraordinary situation that needed to be urgently regulated, thus requiring its immediate adoption through government decree.




  • September 30, 2018

    September 30, 2018

    INDONESIA – The provisional death toll of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami which rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday stands at over 830 dead, the National Disaster Management Agency has today announced. Many people are caught in the rubble, after several buildings collapsed following Fridays earthquake which measured 7.5 degrees and caused tsunami waves of up to 6m in height. Rescue teams in the town of Palu, on the western coast of Sulawesi, are making huge efforts to take people out from under the rubble. Most victims have been identified in Palu. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has sent messages of condolence to the victims families. The ministry expresses compassion and solidarity with the Indonesian people and authorities and expresses deep regret over the high number of victims, as well as for the high volume of material damage caused by that natural disaster, the Romanian Foreign Ministry writes in a communiqué.



    SOVEREIGN FUND – The Romanian Finance Ministry has launched a public debate on the setting up of the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund. The document establishes the legal form, the registered capital, the strategy and management of this fund which, in the governments opinion, is needed to mobilise the available financial resources and channel them towards profitable projects. According to the relevant ministry, this Sovereign Fund is also aimed at developing and financing profitable and sustainable investment projects, from own funds and from attracted funds. The fund will include 33 state owned companies and the registered capital will stand at some 2 billion Euros.



    GUAM – The former Soviet states which are making up the GUAM group, namely Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova, will join efforts and will better coordinate their positions to defend their territorial integrity, representatives of the GUAM member states have announced in Chisinau, during a session of the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly. The delegates have also criticised Russias involvement in fuelling territorial conflicts in the region. GUAM was set up in 2006, with the declared aim of developing cooperation between the member states, by boosting stability and common security in the European space. The Republic of Moldova, a country with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, is currently holding the presidency of this organisation.



    TRANSPORTS – Road passenger traffic in Romania increased by some 14% in the first half of the year, as against the similar period of 2017, and air traffic by 7.5%, data released by the National Statistics Institute show. The n umber of passengers who travelled by plane in the first six months of the year stood at some 10 million, 86.6% of whom were registered on international flights. In exchange, railway passenger traffic decreased by 2.7% in terms of the number of passengers. A 23.4% drop was also reported on Romanias internal waterways. No passenger sea traffic was reported in the aforementioned time span.



    TENNIS– Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, no.1 WTA, exits the Beijing tennis tournament in the first round, with back pain. She abandoned the match she played against Ons Jabeur, no.113 WTA, after the Tunisian player won the first set 6-1. Another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea no.57 WTA, is facing Dutch Kiki Bertens no.11 WTA, whom she has defeated in all matches they have played so far. Although she was defeated by Slovenian Polona Hercog, Cîrstea made it to the main tables, after Australian Ashleigh Barty withdrew from the competition, after Fridays defeat. In the doubles, Romanian women players Mihaela Buzărnescu and Monica Niculescu have qualified for the second round, after defeating the pair Hao-Ching Chan (Taiwan)/Zhaoxuan Yang (China). Buzărnescu and Niculescu will face in the eighth finals the pair made up of Abigail Spears (the US)/Alicja Rosolska (Poland).



    WORLD RECORD – Thousands of people-4807- particularly pupils and high-school students from all across Romania on Saturday set a new world record in the central Romanian town of Alba Iulia, by creating the largest human image of a country. Inside the map, they highlighted the number 100, by wearing white cloaks, as a way to celebrate 100 years since the setting up of the Romanian national unitary state. The old record belonged to Myanmar, where 3,466 people gathered in February 2018 to recreate the map of their country.

  • September 29, 2018 UPDATE

    September 29, 2018 UPDATE

    FUND – The Romanian Ministry of Public Finance
    has launched a bill aimed at defining the legal framework for the Sovereign
    Development and Investment Fund for public debate. The fund will be a Romanian
    judicial entity whose organization and functioning are regulated by Government
    decree. The Fund will be a joint stock company owned entirely by the Romanian
    state. According to the Finance Ministry, the Fund is aimed at developing and
    financing sustainable investment projects using its own funds. It will bring
    together 33 state-owned companies, with a total social capital of some 2
    billion euros.




    MEETING – Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu
    met with counterparts from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Sri Lanka, Bahrain,
    the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Laos on the sidelines of the UN General
    Assembly held in New York. Additionally, the Romanian official met with his
    Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto. According to a Ministry release, the
    two officials looked at ways to improve bilateral relations, based on the Strategic
    Partnership between the two countries, EU and NATO membership and mutual
    respect. Talks focused on topics of mutual interest, especially supporting the
    European track of states in the Western Balkans and the need to diversify
    energy transport routes, in order to ensure energy security at regional and
    European level.




    LAW ENFORCEMENT – The Romanian Police has identified
    32 vehicles wanted internationally. Eight were reported as stolen in the United
    Kingdom, five in Belgium and Spain each, four in Italy, three in Germany, two
    in France and one in Poland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania
    each. The Romanian Police recommends prudence to people who want to buy a
    second-hand vehicle in trade fairs abroad and to ask the buyer for all the proper
    car identification documents.




    GUAM – Ex-soviet states making up the so-called
    GUAM group – Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova, will
    join efforts to consolidate their positions and defend territorial integrity,
    GUAM officials said as part of a GUAM Parliament Assembly held in Chisinau.
    GUAM officials have criticized Russia’s involvement in fueling territorial
    conflicts and military aggression, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine. GUAM
    was set up in 2006, with the aim of developing cooperation between members,
    consolidating stability and joint security at European level. The Republic of
    Moldova is currently holding the rotating presidency of GUAM. Chisinau is
    facing increased pro-Russian separatism in Transdniestr, a region the broke
    with Moldova in 1992 in the wake of an armed conflict that killed hundreds and
    that ended with the military intervention of Russian forces.




    TSUNAMI – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has conveyed
    its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of Friday’s earthquake
    and ensuing tsunami that hit Sulawesi Island, the Republic of Indonesia, which
    killed hundreds and left scores wounded or missing. The Ministry also expressed
    compassion and solidarity with the Indonesian people and authorities, also in connection
    to the high number of victims and the level of damages. Most casualties were
    reported in Palu city on the western coast of the island.




    RECORD – 4,807 people, mostly high-school children
    from all over the country, on Saturday set a new world record in Alba Iulia,
    central Romania, making up the largest human image of a country. The map of
    Romania had the number 100 highlighted at its center, standing for the
    celebration of the Great Union Centennial in 2018. The previous record was held
    by Myanmar, where 3,466 people made a human representation of their country in
    February 2018.




    TENNIS – Romanian tennis players Irina Begu and
    Raluca Olaru on Saturday lost 7-5, 6-3 to Olga Danilovic of Serbia and Tamara
    Zdansek of Slovenia in the women’s doubles final at the tournament in Taskent,
    Uzbekistan, totaling 250 thousand dollars in prize money. Olaru has previously
    won the Taskent doubles twice, in 2008 alongside Olga Savchuk of Ukraine and in
    2016 with Ipek Soylu of Turkey. Begu won the women’s singles in 2012.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)