Publicat pe 22/05/2017

Bucharest, May 22^nd, 2017: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR) launched on Monday, May 22^nd, in a press conference, the study on Perceptions of the business environment on the economy. The study, at its third edition, was commissioned by CCIR and conducted by Kantar TNS on a sample of 501 companies across the country.

The press conference was supported by the President of CCIR, Mr. Mihai Daraban, and the Executive Director Kantar TNS, Ms. Iulia Cornigeanu.

According to the study, the increasingly alarming thing that is now reflected in figures is the availability of qualified personnel as the main problem of companies. 35% of companies have hit the problem of the employees’ leaving abroad and 77% say that the qualified staff was the main category affected, the values being similar to those registered in 2016. The lack of qualified staff (9% 2016 and 18% versus 2015) is a pressing problem of the Romanian business environment.

The President of CCIR, Mr. Mihai Daraban, said at the press conference that “the labor force issue has replaced taxation in the top of the study. I think there are three solutions that we have analyzed: the first is the resetting of the Romanian educational system, but we are aware that it is a solvable issue in the medium and long term. On the other hand, it would be a relaxation of legislation that would allow the import of labor and, last but not least, the reconsideration of social aid schemes”. At the same time, the CCIR president emphasized the need for resettlement of labor force territorial agencies, institutions that are more concerned with the perpetuation of staff training courses and much less with the actual employment and the sending of people to the workforce.

Tax cuts (25%), simplification and clarification of legislation (9%) and fiscal and legislative stability (8%) are the main measures that would improve the economic activity of companies in Romania. The survey also highlights an increase in public administration corruption: 15% of respondents perceive it as higher than last year and 42% of business representatives appreciate DNA activity (down 18% from 2016).

The CCIR president also pointed out that 29% of the respondents consider the indicators in the workbooks difficult to achieve, and 43% of them still consider that these job descriptions are made to favor the winning bidding companies: “the task notebooks are, after all, the constitution of an auction and these task notebooks are made exactly like the legislation in Romania: ambiguous”.

The results of the study also show that half of the companies are very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with the way the state promotes Romanian businesses abroad, and 45% of the companies are perceived as having negative effects by over half (+ 23% ) More than in the previous year.

Download the study here