The local press trained in economics

For two days, last weekend, 20 journalists from the local press in Transylvania participated in training on economic issues, organized in Cluj Napoca, by Freedom House, in the presence of the FH executive director, Cristina Guseth, BancPost – the sponsor of the training and the Patron Association of Local Editors (APEL) which the Zi de Zi daily is affiliated with as well.

With the generous topic of “Is economy prepared for accession?”, Ilie Serbanescu, economic analyst, Ionut Popescu, former minister of finances in the Tariceanu cabinet, respectively Mihai Bogza, chairman of BancPost, talked about issues such as: privatization, state budget, bank system or capital market, which represented challenges to dialogue, but also generated hot debates.

Ilie Serbanescu challenged us to take a different look at privatization cases taking place in the past few years in the important sectors of Romanian economy, from the bank system to the energy one. Volcanic personality as he is, the analyst declared he was not against privatization, but against the unfortunate ways privatization of these pieces was performed by strategic investors. In his opinion, sale of the controlling stocks should have been performed towards disseminated stockholders, who should not thus have control over the companies in the strategic fields.

The second part of the first day was reserved to debates on the issue of the state budget, compared by Ionut Popescu, lector in the topic, to a family budget. Popescu highlighted that the budget is a political option of each government as for its preparation, reaching the sensitive issue of foreign loans. Popescu considered that in order to be able to be indebted, considering that loans are included in the budget as expenses when granted, we must increase the income. “For this reason we supported the raise of the VAT, since it is collected the best, it is a tax on consumption. Thus we could maintain direct taxes at low levels”, Popescu affirmed, with the conviction that this increase will be introduced, if not this year, then January the 1st 2007 the latest. Popescu explained each fiscal measure he initiated, arguing why categories of innovative taxes were introduced: taxes on real estate transactions, dividends, interest etc. In his opinion, income from these sources had to be taxed, in order to attain a fiscal system based on equity. Besides, he sustained also a stronger taxation of holdings, since it is not equitable for an apartment of 50 sq m to pay the same amount as for a villa. Popescu opposed the aid granted to state companies, true black holes, and talked about the reform of fields like health or education, big fund consumers, where order must be at high performance. In conclusion, the former minister of finances attempted at answering the question whether we are ready for the accession: “We will never be prepared sufficiently, costs will be immense, but we must see the cost-benefit relations, and I say advantages are incomparable”.

The second day started with Mihai Bogza’s presentation regarding the bank system, who also presented what 2005 meant for BancPost. Mihai Bogza started his presentation by announcing us that he had three pieces of bad news about the bank system. It is underdeveloped, where the level of mediation (the volume of loans in the PIB) is of only 21%, half of that of Bulgaria, while the volume of credits is of 17 billion Euros, the volume of bank assets is of 33 billion, fairly equal to Slovenia, which on the other hand has 10% of Romania’s population, and the volume of deposits reaches 9 billion euros, equivalent of 1/5 of Bill Gates fortune. Nevertheless, the bank system is more developed than others, it is a system where there aren’t any more technically bankrupt banks. After chairman Bogza’s pro-bank system plea, Ionut Popescu was the next in line to plea in favor of the capital market, which does not have yet the role of company financier, for the exchange game which in his opinion is not yet a national sport. After presenting a history of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, active from 1995, Popescu spoke about year 2006 on the exchange. This year is going to be a crazy one, since several utility companies will be listed, specifying Transelectrica, Termoelectrica, Romtelecom or Transgaz, Proprietatea Fund, a sort of a SIF, which will have a capital of 4-5 billion euros, all these with a potential to make the exchange dynamic.

The epilogue was held, just like the opening speech, by Cristina Guseth, executive director of Freedom House, who presented a series of projects targeting the mass-media which the association proposed for 2006: the Young Journalist of the Year contest, JTI scholarships, and even trainings like the one in Cluj Napoca. (E.M.)