President Nicușor Dan tells businessmen to collaborate with the state. “I encourage you to come with ready-made policies”
President Nicusor Dan, who participated on Friday in an event organized by the Concordia Employers' Confederation, told the businessmen that they must collaborate with the state and do things that, normally, they should not do.
Nicușor Dan, President of Romania PHOTO: Facebook
President Nicusor Dan participated, on Friday, in the event “Dialogue for development – Summit 2025 – Intelligent development, European competitiveness”, organized by the Concordia Employers' Confederation.
“We have to say it very directly – if Europe continues to go the way it has gone, it will lose the fight with the United States and lose the economic fight with China. So a relaunch of Europe's competitiveness is essential. This means courage, including bringing back to the discussion some issues that Europe drew 5-10 years ago, in a different context. This means that we have to be fast, not to waste a lot of time in finding the perfect balance between policies economic, social policies, environmental policiesu”, said the president in his speech, News writes.
According to him, it must “let's strengthen the Single Market, simplify, debureaucratize, and look at energy and invest in energy, because energy will be more and more important and the price of energy is strictly related to this concept of competitiveness”.
“As far as Romania is concerned (…) It is a moment when the private sector and the state must start to collaborate, and here – again, informally – I encourage you to enter areas in which, normally, the economic sector should not enter. We must build an interface where the political and the economic can discuss and propose solutions, and we are working on this interface, but, as the Romanian state is today, it will take time, and then I encourage you to come with ready policies written and with ready-made points of view, ready to be implemented, where normally the state should do it”the president also declared.
According to him, the businessmen should tell the state which are the directions we should follow in the negotiation with the European Commission, for the future multiannual budget.
“The national budget – which are the economic areas we want to stimulate? We have an analysis of the state aid schemes, what succeeded, what failed, do we have a perspective on the next years? I don't have it, but you and the specialists whom we pay, you pay them, can have it, so that the debate on the 2026 budget has a strong component regarding the national economy”Nicusor Dan also declared.
According to him, the same can be discussed about the legislative process.
“There are issues that concern the economic environment, there are issues that concern education. How do we make the school and what the school produces be in line with what you expect in the market, as a workforce? Theoretically, you should send some principles to the Government, and there some specialists should elaborate these principles and transform them into legislative acts, various norms. This theory does not work, because there is no administrative capacity to transform some ideas that are correct into principles. At the moment We want to make a state that, within a reasonable period of time, does not have this administrative capacity, let's say it very clearly. And then, in this transition period, you should do what you normally should do, come with ready-made proposals to be implemented.” the head of state also sent.
He also referred to the trade deficit:In order to correct this trade deficit, we must work together – the state with the private sector – and, for that, we must use our diplomatic apparatus, as everyone does, to stimulate exports from Romania and to find, to stimulate the right partnerships to help our economy. Again, there is availability, but at the moment there is not much project”.
“Normally, a state apparatus would receive some ideas, some impulses, would correct data from the private environment and would be able to develop a commercial diplomacy strategy. There is no such state apparatus at the moment. Please, where possible, replace it, and the state can fold on some policies that you define”the president added.
He also conveyed to the business people that, in a context where security becomes important, we must invest in defense: “In principle, it is better to pay teachers than people who make machine guns, but this is the context, and this context offers the opportunity to the Romanian economy, which had a tradition, which still has some people, some craftsmen, who know how to do things. And, within the defense industry, there are new areas that can be approached from a classic technology perspective, that can also be approached from an automotive perspective. These are some competitive advantages that I invite you to reflect on, because it is an opportunity for our economy”.
