COVID-19  •  Communication - Presse  •  Veille

#flashinfo, 11 june. CCIFER in dialogue with the World Bank

On 11th June, CCIFER organized a new edition of Matinal Digital, a meeting dedicated to discussions on the response of the World Bank to the COVID crisis and the results of the rapport realized by the World Bank: Markets and People. Romania Economic Memorandum.

Our guest speakers were:

Tatiana PROSKURYAKOVA -  Country Manager for Romania and Hungary in the Europe and Central Asia Region, Banque Mondiale

Serge Gonvers, Board Members CCIFER

Moderator: Stefan POPESCU - Deputy Director for Public and Regulatory Affairs, Engie Romania 

The World Bank have been engaged in Romania over the 25 years in many fields. Last time we spoke, I told you of a structure analysis- The World Bank see 2 main potential drivers of growth:  competition and human capital.

Main ideas:

• More productive companies are larger. Romania is still producing one of the best capital on the exports
• There are challenges is Romania: It’s a huge contrast on the urban and rural regarding education in Romania and
• Romania’s priorities should be: investing in innovation, skills and human capital
• Every crisis is an opportunity- the actual crisis has revealed some structural sides on several fields
• World Bank provides economic and technical expertise and assistance
• The role of the World Bank in Romania is marginal in term of financing but the greatest contribution is to inform the public domain and provide advises
• It is important that the private sector put pressure on the public authorities  for the continuity of policy and implementing in what was decided
• There are many good projects developed by the Municipalities that are presented by the World Bank as good practices

How the World Bank responded to pandemic in Romania:

• Romania has handled the pandemic very well, the immediate response was to introduce some essential measures
• Romania has signed in 2018 a contract with the  World Bank for the catastrophe
• Romania needs to invest in measures to restart the economy and protecting people and also to be mindful on the fiscal impact

Education:

• World Bank proposed to the State to help to the reopening of schools in September and to digitalize
• Uruguay – has the best preparation of pandemic because it implemented a program that moved the public education on a digital platform before long time ago. The first things the World Bank did was to contact the Ministry of Education in order to see the example of Uruguay
• It’s impossible to cover the lack of education coming from high school and primary school
• The focus will be on the young people or salaries on the private sector

Justice: World Bank has a program and is working with the Ministry of Justice in order to provide technical assistance for the next mouth when the justice will deal with cases based on the COVID-19 situation.

Infrastructure:

• Romania has the same quality of infrastructure like Bosnia and Hertegovina
• The World Bank has been trying to provide support to critical infrastructure in Romania
• Some infrastructure projects continued also during these period