• Foreign citizens will be able to buy farmland in Romania after the 2014 liberalization but Romanians will have pre-emption rights to purchase land that is up for sale, according to a new draft bill, informs Mediafax.

The Ministry of Agriculture had previously proposed a draft bill which would have imposed stricter conditions on those looking to buy farmland in Romania, be they Romanians or foreigners. According to the initial draft, ownership of farmland was to be limited 100 hectares and interested buyers had to prove they had background in farming and agriculture related know-how. The bill was criticized by legal experts who argued that if passed into law, it would have blocked the market.

According to the latest draft, the only limitation that will be imposed on foreign buyers will be that Romanians have pre-emption rights to purchase farmland that is up for sale.

According to Mediafax, the bill will be discussed in a government meeting this Wednesday.

From January 1, 2014, non-resident foreign citizens are set to be able to buy local land, under Romania’s Treaty of Accession to the EU. As land prices continue to be much cheaper in Romania than throughout the rest of the EU, local farmers complain they will face unfair competition from international players who have far greater financial power.

The liberalization has frequently been debated over the past couple of years, with many fearing that unless restrictions are imposed, come 2014, massive farmland acquisitions will be made by foreigners.

However, foreign investors can, and many have, circumvented the existing legislative restriction by purchasing land through locally registered companies. Some 8.5 percent of the country’s arable farmland is estimated to be already controlled by foreigners, according to official data.

AUTOR Simona Bazavan

Sursa: Business Review

Romania’s national informatics team won four medals (one gold and three silver) in the 21st Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, which was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, over September 7-13, informs the Ministry of National Education.

Winner of the gold medal in the previous edition, Rares Darius Buhai, a 10th-form pupil of the Liviu Rebreanu National College in Bistrita (northern Romania), won the same precious medal this year too.

Fifty-three competitors from 12 countries took part in the Sarajevo competition.

Sources: Financiarul

Despite investment conditions being seen rather negatively, the overall picture is positive and Romania is still a viable option for German investors. Thus, according to a press release, participants in the Conjecture Questionnaire for Eastern and Central Europe conducted by the Romanian and German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania) were satisfied with the location of the investment. 83% of participants would choose Romania again as place of investment, even though the percentage was lower compared to last year (2012: 89%).
“This shows that, despite problems, business people’s expectations are being met, so committing to Romania is worth it”, Sebastian Metz, General Manager of AHK Romania stated. According to the conjecture questionnaire, the most appealing investment location in Eastern and Central Europe is Poland, followed by the Czech Republic. Before this year, the Czech Republic had been dominating the ranking since 2006. Companies criticised Romania, sometimes very harshly, but German investors said they would not renounce this place of investment. Our country has dropped one place in the eye of investors, compared to last year and is currently 11th among 20 countries that participated in the questionnaire.
The trade volume between Romania and Germany was reported at approximately EUR 18 billion last year, according to AHK Romania data. At the end of last year, Germany was third in foreign investments, with 19.000 German share capital companies, the equivalent of EUR 4.43 billion.
“We hope that the current government, that owns parliamentary majority, will meet these challenges from a pragmatic, sustainable and consistent standpoint”, the General Manager of AHK Romania stated. Expectations concerning the situation of companies for this year are mostly positive. Even if the number of positive evaluations has decreased compared to last year (2013: 36%, 2012: 42%), half of the companies estimate that the situation will improve this year (2012: 46%). Over one third of the participants in the questionnaire want to invest more and hire personnel, while only 14% are thinking of personnel reductions, which proves that German investors are contributing to investments and creating job opportunities. Approximately 30% are expecting an improvement in the opportunities for every branch and only 19% expect the situation to worsen in their branch. Last year, only 17% of participants believed the situation in their branch would improve, while 15% believed it would worsen.
Companies included available human resources among the most important investment criteria. Labour market conditions ranked high among the investment selection criteria and these include a combination of costs, qualifications and productivity, in addition to reduced workforce costs. According to the majority, the costs and productivity ratio is good, which offers German companies a reason to be active in Romania. According to the questionnaire, a lot of catching up must be done in the field of professional training. The personnel usually meet company requirements and the business environment is considered to be satisfactory, but the political and economic framework conditions were seen negatively by German companies. 27% of the companies are extremely dissatisfied with access to financing sources (2012: 19%). The infrastructure is another topic on which 52% of participants stated they were dissatisfied (2012: 32%).
Most companies want the euro currency to be introduced in Romania (52%), but the percentage has decreased considerably compared to previous years. In 2009, over 80% of the participating companies believed it was necessary to switch to euro currency.

Sources: Nine O’Clock

Elections were held in Paris, votes being cast by all the states part of the 2001 Convention on the protection of the underwater cultural heritage.

Other countries that were also elected were: France, Argentina, Mexico, Iran and Tunisia. The new mission of Romania under UNESCO is in line with the promotion of the priority political-diplomatic objectives of the country in the strategic cultural field and completes the structure of missions engaging Romania in its capacity as a member of UNESCO.

Romania is also a member in the UNESCO’s Committee for the Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation and in the UNESCO Committee on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

‘Romania being a member in the specialized and management structures of UNESCO ensures the protection of its terrestrial and underwater cultural heritage as values of the world, with special implications for their protection at national level’, MAE says.

Romania had its first mission as a member in the Council of Consultant Fellows of the UNESCO over 2011-2013. Back then it was about the renewed membership of half of the Council members, some of them elected in a draw for a two year term.

The new term obtained by Romania in the May 28 elections is for four years and is based on the expertise in the basic fields of the Convention, targeting: underwater archaeology, international law, basic sciences (geology, archeology, metallurgy), for protection the sites of the underwater cultural heritage.

Sources: AGERPRES

DURING Romania’s communist regime under Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian film industry was nationalised and film-makers were subsidised to create socialist films that portrayed a happy working-class society. Romania’s citizens lived in a world where state propaganda praised a fake economic prosperity while people were forced to queue for hours to buy milk or meat. But the film industry peddled communist ideology. Since the bloody revolution in 1989 a new generation of directors has turned its lens on the Ceausescu era, making films that show how people really lived under the regime and the post-communist traumas that followed after democracy was installed.

This new wave of Romanian cinema has been gaining international recognition over the past decade for its authenticity and original style. Many of the first films portray daily life under communism, such as Cristian Mungiu’s “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”. Other films, such as Corneliu Porumboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest” or Catalin Mitulescu’s “How I Celebrated the End of the World” dramatise the 1989 revolution, when the regime collapsed and Ceausescu and his wife were executed. More recently, directors are focusing on Romanian society in transition, such as in “Child’s Pose”, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, which was awarded the Golden Bear for best film at last month’s Berlin International Film Festival.

In quasi-documentary style, “Child’s Pose” portrays a wealthy and domineering mother (played by the powerful actress Luminita Gheorghiu, pictured above) in her struggle to cover up her son’s responsibility for an accident that would send him to jail. This psychological drama offers an insight into Romania’s new bourgeoisie as corruption spreads through the country’s democratic institutions. Under communism, political affiliation bought influence but in the new democracy, money wields power. The film also addresses a universal theme—the relationship between children and their parents.

“This is a suffocating movie”, says Mr Netzer, “most of the frames are tight and you are a spectator who is taking part in the action. Unlike the majority of Romanian movies, you don’t watch it like you would admire a painting, but you get close to the characters, their actions and moods.” The intense realism and black humour in this film are themes found across the new wave.

Bogdan Dumitrache (pictured below), a 35-year-old actor who plays the role of the son, experienced both communism during his childhood and also the freedom and the economic development that followed after the revolution. “I think my generation has mixed feelings towards communism”, he says. “On one hand, we feel nostalgic because those were the days of our childhood, but on the other hand, we feel repulsion because we know our parents’ stories. We were too young to actually live those times but we feel the need to pass on the stories that affected our close ones.”

However, passing on these stories is proving difficult due to funding problems. Currently, film-makers can apply for 50% of production costs as a grant which must be repaid within 10 years from the National Center of Cinematography (CNC). Grants should be awarded in a twice-yearly competition, in accordance with Romania’s law of cinematography, but this is not always the case. Funding more often comes from the European Union or foreign investors.

The CNC, which has an annual budget of up to €7m ($9m), has been criticised by some in the Romanian film industry for its corruption, lack of transparency and bureaucratic obstacles. It is accused of favouring and financing particular directors—such as Sergiu Nicolaescu, a communist-era favourite—even though their films turned out to be failures in terms of audience and international recognition. Nicolaescu’s last film before he died earlier this year, “The Last Corrupted Man of Romania”, was a critical and financial flop. Eugen Serbanescu, the head of the CNC, told The Economist that the institution is not responsible for the outcome of the movies because the finance is strictly offered based on the scenarios submitted. Another obstacle to the growth of Romania’s cinema industry is that the country has the fewest cinemas in Europe. This lack of infrastructure prevents wide distribution and determines modest commercial profits at the box office.

Ada Solomon, the producer of “Child’s Pose”, which had a €800,000 budget, believes that politicians should pay more attention to the film industry because it has become an ambassador for the country. Ms Solomon believes there are multiple solutions for the problems the system is currently facing: she calls for a budgetary fund that Romanian directors could access, and a state aid scheme for potential investors in the industry. But these cannot be implemented without political will. The country’s cinema infrastructure should also be addressed, she says.

Alin Tasciyan, vice-president of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), claims that international recognition of the Romanian cinema is not a temporary trend because the industry is built on a strong culture by film-makers who have resilient personalities. “I believe this is just the beginning, only the revolt not the revolution itself, and it is only a matter of time and money for the Romanian cinema to flourish and expose all its colours.

However, if the political class will not turn its face to the Romanian cinema and establish solutions for the most urgent problems the industry faces, the country‘s talent might migrate towards the developed film industries in the Western world