Romania’s Liberal Govt Drafts 4-Yr Action Plan To Counter Global Crisis Effects

Romania will hold parliamentary elections on November 30.

"We will allocate at least 10 billion euro ($12.4 billion) in the next four years to invest in the economic zones that are crucial for Romania’s future,” Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The four-year action plan includes a 10-percentage-points cut in social insurance contributions to 30%, and a five-percent fiscal discount to individuals and companies that pay their taxes on time, he said.

Under the same plan, companies would be granted 1,000 euro for hiring a person who had been unemployed for more than three months. Companies that invest more than 100 million euro and create 500 jobs would get state aid of up to 50 million euro, the PM said.

Global rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s have recently downgraded Romania’s sovereign ratings quoting increasing risk of a severe economic and financial crisis.

According to a survey conducted by local polling agency INSOMAR, if elections were held next Sunday only 17% of the respondents would vote for Tariceanu's National Liberal Party (PNL), ranking it third after the Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L) with 37% support and the main opposition Social Democrats (PSD) with 32% support.

Romania's coalition cabinet is dominated by PNL. It also includes three members of the Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and three independents.

($ = 0.806 euro)