What's next?, next war Romanians could be part of

About Black Sea gambit:

http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-74755...r-baconschi.htm

and

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5726183,00.html

http://www.romanialibera.ro/actualitate/ma...gra-191565.html

About the new National Strategy for Country's Defence (SNAT), aproved by CNSAT and sent to Parliament, see here:

http://cristiannegrea.blogspot.com/2010/06...se-la-atac.html

That sounds good but sadly it's untrue. Here's what we have:

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?issue=4...=20100614-13195

Add to that the declining production capabilities (2010 vs 1980s), the outdated infrastructure, the trade (im)balance, the debt, the demographic decline, the massive emigration. And to top it all off, the utter demoralization.

Regional pawn, not regional power.

The Academy report is correct. The economic problems that Romania faces stem from the old Romanian mentalilty that "foreign is better". Even Romanian-made products are deemed "better" if they are intended for "export". Romanians are obsessed with purchasing "foreign" objects, clothes, food, etc. It makes no sense that Romanians would spend more on Parmalat milk instead of their local milk. It makes no sense that Romaniains would spend more on Turkish tomatoes instead of the local tomatoes. It makes no sense that Romanians spend more on Stella Artois beer than on Ciucas beer. As a result, money leaves the country and Romania is slowly squandering away all of its wealth. Romanians should start to appreciate Romanian products over foreign products and thus keep the money in the country. Furthermore, Romania must strive to export more in order to bring in capital. I know that some may say that Romanian products are of poor quality. However, quality depends on investment in infrasctucture (tooling, materials, staff) and when the profits are low, investment is reduced, and in turn this leads to a self-feeding vicious circle. With an increase in sales will come an increase in funds that then can be invested in infrastructure - quality will automatically follow.
There should be an aggressive and pervasive "Buy Romanian" campaign to encourage Romanians to accept, value and purchase Romanian products.
Radu

Just an example out of the ones you mentioned, Stella Artois is brewed in Romania, as is Tuborg, Carlsberg and the other "foreign brands". Ciuc as the other major premium "local" brands is also owned by one of the major international brewers, so there really is no difference between the two in terms of ownership and taxes paid. The situation is similar for most of the producers in Romania: foreign ownership, local manufacturing plant. This means: local employees (income taxes+social contributions) and local taxes. Only the final profit will be sent back to the parent company. It's a pretty good deal, given the current state of the Romanian capital.

The "Buy Romanian" campaign was already tried once, without any tangible results, and could only work for a limited number of products, because there are many things that one does not have a local alternative to choose over a foreign-made product. The market should be the one who decides, not the national feelings.

I can only imagine how money will be wasted on another "study", "publicity campaign" and the likes. It is one of the easiest way to make money for the people who know other people. At least the people that know other people and win contracts for road rehabilitation do actually have to perform something, employ some people. To make "campaign" you need only few resources.

The solution, IMO, is another. Lower taxes for producers, ease up the bureaucratic process of creating a business, build infrastructure. This way it will be easier for investors (foreign or local) to start production locally.

Victor is somehow right . But for example , I work for a company that is in dairies branch . My question for you is : do you know origin of the milk for example ?
Or the raw material that butter is produced ?
I`l let you guess !

China.

No, it`s much closer. Try Hungary and Poland !
And for the butter you were close - New Zeeland !

This post has been edited by ovichelu on July 05, 2010 06:02 pm

I agree with you, we need more agressive programs for population to buy local products or products who are made in our country, like Americans said "Buy American".
these are many consumers who prefere indigenous products, but those products are very hard to find. Look at vegetables, in supermarkets you find only foreigner, and even on local markets, many of them are the same. You know, we find onion from Holland and gaerlic from Canada!

Strange, garlic is imported to Canada from... China.

Gen. Dénes

Yes, that works too.

Let me clarify something. I did not say any of the above from a "nationalist" standpoint. The report said that "Romania is poorer now than 20 years ago" and I was only pointing out where the erstwhile wealth was squandered. Wealth continues to be squandered. Yesterday there was a news report about Romanians flocking across the border into Bulgaria to do their shopping. THAT is money leaving Romania.

I have no "silver bullet" solution. I also do not think that "Buy Romanian" is the solution as long as Romanians do not appreciate "Romanian" products. What Romanians need to do is to regain trust in Romanian products. How you do that? I have no idea. For generations we were told that Bulgarian cigarettes, Albanian brandy, Chinese underwear were the best even though the rest of the world thought they were really bad. It will take a seismic shift in mentality to make Romanians apreciate local products. I mean anything that makes Romanians keep the money in the country as well as make more.

Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on July 07, 2010 09:23 am

Strange, garlic is imported to Canada from... China.

Gen. Dénes

Do you want to know someting else that`s interesting ?
I have a friend that`s a truck driver and one day he had to load some iron pipes from Galati for Italy . He went to Italy unloaded the pipes and after 4-5 hours he loaded the same pipes again ! The only diference was that now they were stamped with some numbers and underneath the numbers was written "MADE IN ITALY "
So what can we say more ?!?
Radu you are right that if you lower taxes production and consumption wil grow but you need capable people for than , also tax evasion will decrease ! And we lack such people in right places because in romania thigs go by the colour of the rulling party , why should we put an wise man as a mayor when we can put an "goagal' or "almanahe " that serves the interests of our party/our group of interests ?
And again contras is right how can we buy romanian tomatoes when in the market or at the hypermarket you can find only foreign products, also romanian tomatoes when came on market they were 20-30% more expensive and this is from my experience !

That was because products are cheaper in Bulgaria, due to a lower VAT, not because people thought Bulgarian products are better. Like I already said. It's about the tax level.

Like I already said, I agreed with you! I agree again.

Money is haemorrhaging out of the country. Romania imports more than it exports = more money is leaving than is coming in. Only when that reverses, things will change.

Radu