Publicat pe 07/03/2017

Bucharest, March 7th: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), in partnership with General Dynamics, General Dynamics European Land Systems – Mowag and TRACE International, held for two days, March 7th -8th, 2017 at CCIR Business Center, the most complex workshop dedicated to US anti-corruption best practices, adapted to the needs of the business community in Romania – Business Without Corruption. CCIR project was launched over a year ago and is conducted with the support of the US Embassy in Romania.

“Ensuring such a business environment is indeed a prerequisite for a stronger economic objective of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the U.S. Our vision is to promote, within the business community, a culture based on the rejection of all forms of corruption. We are, therefore, engaged in a continuous development of domestic practices on fighting and controlling the phenomenon of corruption, understanding its damaging effects inter alia on competitiveness or entrepreneurship” said Mr. Mihai Daraban, the President of CCIR his opening remarks.

In this context, the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Romania recalled some of the strategic documents adopted by the CCIR for this purpose: Code of Ethics and Integrity, which established rules, principles and values joined by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Romania, the Declaration integrity, through which CCIR declared its adherence to the principles, values and objectives of the National Strategy on Anti-Corruption 2016-2020.

“We condemn all types of corruption; we firmly state our commitment for institutional cooperation on enhancing the legislative framework on fighting corruption; and we pursue the enablement of a corporate culture based on integrity and compliance” said Mr. Mihai Daraban.

“On behalf of the US Government, I congratulate the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, General Dynamics Corporation and TRACE International efforts to promote a better understanding of best practices to combat corruption in Romania. It is worth highlighting also Romania’s investment in international security, both here in the Black Sea region and battlefields widely separated. We recognize Romania’s strong economic growth now a day. Also, the Romania’s contribution to the fight against corruption has been really beneficial to our strategic partnership and strengthened it. It is recognized the fact that in the United States and in the capitals of EU member states strongly encourage Romania to continue the fight against corruption” said US Ambassador to Romania, Mr. Hans Klemm.

According to a study made by the US State Department, corruption leads to increased business costs by an average of 20%, and produces risks as well, stressed the US Ambassador. “This seminar provides the companies the contact with the best practices used by companies in US and also by Us companies all around the world”, said Steven K. Saiget, Vice-president International Personal and Compliance, General Dynamics Corporation, who stressed that involvement in fighting corruption is essential, “otherwise we will not believe in the products, services and your companies.”

Dr. Thomas Kauffmann, Vice President International and Business Services, General Dynamics European Land Systems – Mowag, referred to the intention to produce defense vehicles locally. “In this regard, it is vital to understand in the same way ethics and business conduct. (…) General Dynamics is not punctual interested in cooperation with local industry; we are interested in a long term Cooperation industrial strategy (…) to ensure sustainable jobs over time. We are talking about a project that includes Romanian companies in our overall distribution chain, provided that our local partners meet the same standards and be competitive. (…) At the macro level, the partnership proposed by General Dynamics is to attract new investments in Romania, involving local firms to benefit from these opportunities”.
Among the topics debated include: international standards and regulations, corporate compliance culture, the use of third parties and due diligence, common challenges of compliance, training and communication in the field.

 

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