Cristian Parvan: Romania uses 3 times as many resources than European average to produce EUR 1 for GDP

Cristian Parvan, the president of the Domestic Investors Organisation (PIAROM), said on Thursday that Romania uses three times as many material resources to produce 1 euro for the GDP than the European average, according to Agerpres. The statement was made at a conference called “Why is Romania losing its competitiveness? Challenges and Solutions.”

Parvan added that, between 2000-2016, Romania has been the only European country that saw a drop in its resource recovery indicator.

“Why do we want competitiveness? It’s because we want higher salaries, a better standard of living. We can’t obtain this real convergence in the current structure. We just need to look at the Eurostat data regarding material resource recovery, and see that between 2000 and 2016 Romania’s the only European country that had a drop in this indicator, while other countries have had increases, for example the Czech Republic with a 152 percent increase. I think we’re talking about competitiveness as a source for GDP, as without the GDP there are no resources for what we’re trying to support as public systems. Added value from automotive, for example, is lower than the added value from the food industry and this is where the disconnection can be seen, and the bad area we’re in regarding the change in this utility,” said Parvan.

According to INACO, The Report on Global Competitiveness 2017-2018 of the World Economic Forum shows that Romania has lost six places in a single year, going from 62 to 68 in the ranking of the 137 countries analysed using over 100 economic indicators.

Romania’s also gone down five places in the global ranking for the capacity of developing, retaining and attracting talent, and two places in the Global Report on Tourism Competitiveness.