July 24
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Roxana Vasile, 24.07.2013, 12:13
The Romanian government on Wednesday approved the privatization contract of the Freight Division of the Romanian Railway Company CFR Marfa. The sales contract will most probably be signed in September, and the privatization procedure will be finalized within 60 days, the Romanian PM Victor Pointa said. In June, GFR, part of the Grampet group, was declared winning bidder in the privatization of the CFR Marfa. They offered 202 million euros for 51% of the shares in this company. Also GFR said they would make further investments amounting to around 204 million euros. On the freight railway transport market in Romania, CFR holds a share of more than 40% while GFR holds more than 30%.
A joint IMF, EC and WB mission continues talks with Romanian officials in Bucharest. On Wednesday the international experts talked with the representatives of the economy and finance ministries. The Romanian economy minister, Varujan Vosganian, said that by the end of 2014 the privatization procedures would be launched for all companies in his ministry’s portfolio, except for those related to Romania’s security. The international financiers are in Bucharest in the context in which Romania wants to conclude another precautionary-type agreement, after the latest such agreement was successfully completed in June.
Romania must focus in the coming 10-20 years on macro-stability, because the lack of macro stability could harm even the country’s democracy, said Wednesday, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu. He warned the politicians that, if they speeded up economic growth ahead of elections, they would do nothing but speed up the economic decline in the post-election period. The national bank governor added that Romanian should count mainly on capitalizing on its domestic resources, be they natural or human resources.
French director of Romanian origin, Radu Mihaileanu, will receive the prize “Vento d’Europa” at the Ventotene film festival in Italy, that will take place between July 25th and August 2nd. The prize is awarded to those artists who promoted, through their works, the idea of a European culture. Born in 1958 in Bucharest he made his debut with a feature film called Trahir, but he received international recognition following his second film, Train de vie. His next movie was Va, vis et deviens which was awarded many prizes. In 2009, Radu Mihaileanu wrote and directed The Concert, which was nominated for the Golden Globe award for best foreign film and which received the Cesar award for best sound and best soundtrack.
Russia respects the Republic of Moldova’s sovereign choice, said Wednesday, in Moscow, the Russian foreign minister, Serghei Lavrov, referring to Moldova’s European aspirations. He met with his Moldovan counterpart, Mrs. Natalia Gherman with whom he also talked about the situation in Transdniester. The two officials agreed to recommend to the legislative bodies in their countries to re-launch the activity of the inter-parliamentary commission, which has not convened for 4 years. Also the Moldovan foreign minister said the Republic of Moldova was in favour of starting talks over the political status of Transdniester.
