January 5, 2024
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 05.01.2024, 13:55
CONTESTS
– Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has promised to solve the problem of
resident doctors who took the specialty exam last year as quickly as possible.
In the first government session of 2024, the Prime Minister said he doesn’t
want these physicians to leave searching for jobs abroad, and called on the
relevant authorities to take action so as to hold vacancy-filling contests.
Both USR in opposition and the Administration of Hospitals and Medical Services
in Bucharest complained about medical personnel shortage, accusing the ruling
coalition of having brought the medical system to the brink of imminent
collapse by ignoring the crisis in the medical system or by operating draconic
cuts to hospital budgets, thus endangering patients’ lives.
INFLATION
– The National Bank of Romania expects an annual inflation rate of over 6% for
December, Central Bank spokesman Dan Suciu told Radio Romania. The inflation
rate showed signs of slowing down in November, when it dropped from 8% the
previous month to 6.7%. Dan Suciu believes early 2024 will determine an
increase in the inflation rate as the new fiscal measures took effect starting
January 1, but says it will go down at the end of the first quarter. External
factors greatly impact prices, for instance tensions in the Middle East affect
fuel prices, Dan Suciu also argues.
AGREEMENT
– Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey are expected to sign a joint agreement for
demining operations in the Black Sea. Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Todor Tagarev
said the agreement has long been in the making, and the parties have finally
agreed on the final details. The agreement will be signed next week and
provides for the creation of a trilateral demining task force in the Black Sea.
Since the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a lot of maritime mines
have exploded in the Black Sea, the latest such incident involving a Greek
vessel in December.
ROMANIA -
UKRAINE – Representatives of Romania and Ukraine have signed an agreement
for developing relations in the field of digitization and cyber-security, the
Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization reports. The agreement will
serve as the foundation for a new mechanism whereby the European Union will
fund technology and know-how transfer projects in Ukraine under Romania’s
coordination. The goals are to increase resilience and protect digital
infrastructure in Ukraine and Romania, to consolidate the level of
cyber-security for the infrastructure grids of Ukraine and Romania, to develop
cloud infrastructures for electronic public services and to exchange know-how
in terms of developing policies in the field of electronic communications and
emerging technologies.
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE – Rescue teams are
still searching for the 242 people that went missing in the wake on the New
Year’s devastating earthquake in Japan. The critical period of 72 hours for
finding survivors ended yesterday. The number of casualties of the 7.6
Richter-scale quake in the Noto peninsula went up to 92. Japan has doubled the
number of military troops taking part in search and rescue operations to 4,600.
HANDBALL
– The Romanian men’s team is today playing Argentina on the second day of
Yellow Cup, hosted by Winterthur. Yesterday, Romania lost 37-31 to Switzerland.
Yellow Cup is the final test ahead of the EHF EURO 2024, where Romania will
play in Group B alongside Spain, Austria and Croatia. Spain was vice-champion
in 2022, Austria defeated Romania in both preliminary fixtures while Croatia
played the final in 2020. The top two teams in each group will advance to the
main group phase. Romania had last qualified to a European Championship in
1996. (VP)
