Press Review - May 24, 2016

05.24.2016 By Gabriela Stan

Romania Posts Record Food Imports In January-March

While the local production and agri-food products exports fell, the domestic demand rose sharply, boosting the imports in the first three months of the year to the historical record of EUR1.38 billion.

The poor farming infrastructure and storage capacity, last year’s drought, the underfinanced and underdeveloped food industry, the more and more sophisticated demand and the falling exports – all these led to a new historical record in terms of food imports in the first quarter of 2016.

According to the data from the country's statistics board INS, in the first quarter, imports stood at EUR15.8 billion, 7.1% higher on the year, while agri-food products, beverages and tobacco category accounted for 8.4% of the total, or EUR1.38 billion. (Adevarul)

BNR: Customer Relations Would Have Been Better If Banks Had Showed More Empathy

The public perception related to the banking system would have been better if banks had built the customer relations based on empathy, central bank deputy governor Bogdan Olteanu stated.

“If more banks in the Romanian banking system had had a proactive attitude in the last years and if they had voluntarily assumed to rebuild their customer relations based on empathy and humanization (…), the public perception would have definitely been better," Olteanu told a conference.

According to Olteanu, the banks which managed to make the correct move will be the winners of this realignment of the bank-customer relation, while the others will probably lose the competition on the market. (Evenimentul Zilei)

Finance Ministry Says No Need To Amend Law On Debt Discharge

Romanian Finance Minister, Anca Dragu, on Monday said there is no need to amend the law on debt discharge for eliminating the taxation on property transfer.

“The law came from the Parliament with these clear stipulations. It is a law set up in the Parliament and I can’t see why we should come and change it,” Dragu said.

Last week, the Finance Minister stated that, for a potential elimination of the tax on property transfer in the context of debt discharge law, they should amend the Tax Code by an emergency ordinance, adding that they should analyze whether such a step is achievable.

The law on debt discharge allows retail mortgage borrowers to return real estate collateral to banks in exchange for writing off their loans. (Puterea)

PNL Co-Chair Alina Gorghiu Says PNL Won’t Exclude Razvan Sava From The Party

PNL co-chair Alina Gorghiu stated on Monday that the party will not exclude Razvan Sava, the candidate for mayor of Bucharest district 4, from the party, despite his “unfortunate association” with Cristian Popescu Piedone.

“We will continue to support him but we believe that observing the opinion of the party leadership is also essential for him. I had very direct and honest talks with Sava. He has no political collaboration with Piedone and he does not support the council list of Mr. Piedone, they don’t have a collaboration concretized in a document. (...) I think it was an unfortunate association, so that any further talks would be useless,” Gorghiu concluded.

Alina Gorghiu said she firmly recommends Razvan Sava not to get associated with Piedone, “who should solve certain problems first”. (Puterea)

PM: Doctors Should Get Involved In Curing Healthcare System’s Diseases

Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos said that doctors “who love their jobs” should notify and get involved in curing the diseases in the healthcare system.

The message came after a doctor stated that “the attitude of the current government is a non-combat one”.

“Me, as a PM, and I’m sure that the health minister also, will talks about what we find wrong in the system. But it’s not enough to say what we discover, we will also have to come up with solutions, including legislative solutions. At the same time, it’s not enough for authorities «to say» and «to do». It’s time for doctors who care about their jobs, their dignity, their patients, to stop watching and waiting for others to take action. They are the ones who know the situation best and they must have the power to talk about it,” PM Dacian Ciolos posted on his Facebook page. (Adevarul)