Romania ranks 85th out of 159 countries in 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index recently published by Transparency International.

The Corruption Perceptions Index, now in its eleventh year, aims to provide data on extensive perceptions of corruption within countries. These perceptions enhance our understanding of real levels of corruption from one country to another. The CPI is a composite index, making use of surveys of business people and assessments by country analysts.

Overall, 16 sources were included in the 2005 CPI, originating from 10 independent institutions and using data compiled between 2003 and 2005.

The first 10 corruption-free countries are:

1. Iceland 9.7
2. Finland / New Zealand 9.6
4 Denmark 9.5
5 Singapore 9.4
6 Sweden 9.2
7 Switzerland 9.1
8 Norway 8.9
9 Australia 8.8

This year’s edition has a special focus on corruption and health although it has some in-depth analysis on some of the problematic countries on the subject, including Romania, as well as a final part which surveys the latest in corruption research.

The Romanian section is of course focused on two main subjects:

1. Romania’s hopes for accession to the EU in 2007 which depends on it discovering remedies to its deep-seated problems of corruption and the rule of law
2. Romania’s infrastructure nightmares and all questionable deals that took place in this field

Check the report downloads section here.

Tags: corruption perception index, transparency international, romania, eu accession

Romania is the main Southeast European country to have absorbed the highest investment volume in 2004, and in 2005 it will attract investments worth about 3.5 billion euros, according to a report on the evolution of the business climate and investments in the Southeast European countries made public by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ACT Media news agency reports.

Based on the report, Romania will be followed by Bulgaria with 1.8 billion euros, Croatia with 1 billion euros and Serbia-Montenegro with 800 million euros.

More than 80 percent of the investments made last year in the Southeast European area were drawn by Romania (4.098 billion euros), Bulgaria (2.114 billion euros) and Croatia (921 million euros).

The Southeast European countries implemented the reforms aimed at aligning them with the other countries with respect to taxation, and Romania joined the OECD investment instruments.

The biggest privatisations were made in the banking sector.Romania started the privatisation of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) and the CEC Savings House, the report stressed.

The OECD officials, however, said the level of the investments in the region remains insufficient.

The countries should promote more greenfield projects for the small and medium-sized firms (SME), since the Southeast European countries have a strong competitor, China, the OECD said.

Technorati Tags: romania, investments

The well respected BusinessWeek and Business Media Group (BMG), the publisher of some well known romanian business and lifestyle magazines, have announced their agreement to publish a Romanian language edition of BusinessWeek.

The first issue is scheduled for launch in February 2006. The Romanian edition will be published weekly and will be available on newsstands and via subscription. Editorial content will consist of selected material from the North American and international editions of BusinessWeek and original editorial by BMG’s journalists.

“BusinessWeek has had an established relationship with BMG for several years. We have witnessed its rapid and successful expansion as well as its journalistic integrity,” said Gary Hopkins, senior vice-president of operations for BusinessWeek.

Technorati Tags: BusinessWeek, Romania, Business

Romanian blogosphere is more and more in the spotlight of the traditional media. And as an example of journalists eyeing the blogosphere, and without minimizing the good intent (supposedly) just noticed an article in the new hybrid journal Gandul, on the blogosphere.

First of all I have to admit I am only talking about the online version of the article. I also have to admit that from the very beginning, the grandious title (The blogosphere sends personal journals to “Trash” and modifies the balance of political elections) and the pathetic black-and-white pie-slice graph surrounded by some percentage data and with a “self-explanatory” legend (1,2,3,…8) caught my attention: “Wow, traditional media is taking care of us”.

I have to mention here that the graph is taken from excellent Timsoft‘s Romanian Blogosphere analysis which if author of the article would have give the least of attention, the article should have looked a little different.

Getting into the content, and passing over the opening definition of the weblog, as “a modern form of former personal journals” and passing over some other general stuff on webloging I have to admit, that the ending of the article is apotheotic. After teaching the readers that if they want a blog they should go to weblog.ro, register, I’m left wondering if this is a PR move of the aforementioned site, or is just the laziness of the journalist.

And to finish good, as good as it started, the last paragraph finally let us know what are blogs used for:

Beyond the fact that they might represent a psychic outburst of their users, the blogs also have an important social and political component. Last year US elections – it’s well known – were decided by bloggers (sic).

Damn! I’m out, setting my brain free!!

Tag: Romanian Blogosphere

Just bumped into 2 interesting articles on Romania published these days in some international magazines.

First, published by Manuela Paraipan in The Global Politician, Romania: In or Out of the Anglo-American Axis?:

From the beginning of his mandate as a President of Romania, Traian Basescu declared himself a supporter of the so-called Axis of Washington-London-Bucharest. The idea was received with a cold attitude by the European powers, especially by the Germans and the French – long time friends of the country. Nonetheless, it became the leit motif of Romania’s foreign policy.

But apparently the interest for this friendship axis is almost non-existent from both the UK and the USA. When the Romanian authorities asked for a visa-free entry in England and America for the Romanian citizens, the response was a clear and concise ‘no’! But, when the Romanian troops were needed in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere on this globe, the answer was “Yes, Sir!”

Some felt that there is something wrong with this picture. Is Romania a friend country of the world powers? Or merely their hobbyhorse?

And more than that, related with Romanian EU admission:

In this regard, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu stated that the EU officials in spite of their critiques do not have a plan B in case Romania and Bulgaria fail to join the EU in January 2007. Ungureanu said: “Not even the Brussels bureaucracy has considered the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2008. There is much trust that the two states will accomplish missions and become members of the EU in January 1, 2007.”

With a poor Romanian lobby for the accession, with a political class lacking the stamina to urge clear reforms, with a justice obedient to the interests of various politicians and mafia bosses, the chances of seeing an European Romanian any time soon are indeed very low.

More on the subject, in an Oxford Business Group article published by Turkish Daily News (free registration required):

the question of Romanian accession as a whole has come back onto the political agenda elsewhere in Europe, particularly since doubts over enlargement surfaced with such force in the EU constitutional referenda in France and the Netherlands earlier this year. […]

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Deutsche Welle on Aug. 10 that Romania and Bulgaria could see their EU entry delayed by one year due to an invocation of the safeguard clause in the enlargement treaty signed with both back in May.[…]

Adding more gloom was a poll of analysts undertaken by Reuters on Aug. 8-11. Romania’s chances of joining the EU in 2007 were thought to be 50 percent or higher by only 26 out of the 34 analysts questioned — one less than for neighboring Bulgaria.

Yet for many the hope is now there that such uncomfortable thoughts may indeed serve as an impetus for the Romanian government and Parliament to press ahead speedily with the changes needed to meet the EU’s criteria.

One of the earliest promoters of the collaborative citizen journalism in Romanian web has closed its doors.

dbrom.ro was started in 2000 “for the people that had something to say about contemporary romanian society” as “a page prepared to put a gray smile straight on your face”.

dbrom is shutting down because “rarely” become “way to rarely” maybe even impossible. dbrom is shutting down because it cannot do follow its purpose anymore. […]. Noboby in the group that was close to dbrom in latest years doesn’t have the force, the time and motivation to carry on with this site, which doesn’t bring any money and it requires time and care

Well life moves on. As for me personally, I’m gonna miss it. dbrom is dead. Long live dbrom.

Technorati tag: Romanian Blogosphere