Forbes CEE Forum 2021, Alexandru Reff (Deloitte Romania and Moldova): The opportunity not to be missed – Next Generation EU
We are undoubtedly dealing with a so-called reset in the economic environment. Is Romania ready for this historic moment, which involves major changes through the Next Generation EU funding package (PNRR)? Alexandru Reff, Country Managing Partner of Deloitte Romania and Moldova, about the fact that “it is very important not to go through this moment of reset as we went through 30 years ago, when we lost a decade due to a regime that a. brought mining instead of capital markets ”. Indeed, the moment of December ’89 radically changed the Romanian society, but the lack of vision of the then leaders of Romania led to the loss of a precious time for the adoption of the reforms.
Alexandru Reff points out that we should not declare a “victory” just for Romania’s GDP to return more than we would have expected, but we must focus on the moment we are going through: “It is important to be very good. we take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity of a new generation, of a Europe Next Generation, which mobilizes up to two trillion euros for the great transformations of today ”. The most discussed of these measures is facilitated by recovery and resilience, which focuses mainly on combating climate change and digital transformation. In this regard, governments and companies have proposed to the European Union ambitious projects to reform societies towards these trends (combating climate change and digitalisation). For Romania, the very generous funds, which are theoretically available through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), will not be easy to access because they involve reforming objectives. Alexandru Reff explained: “Nobody will give more just because we have development gaps. We will be offered sources of funding to achieve the very concrete and very ambitious goal of reforming the achievement will be pursued later.
The head of Deloitte Romania and Moldova also identifies a difficulty of Romania, related to co-financing: “The co-financing obligations are significant and a major deficit, a significant increase in public debt and especially a very high percentage of public spending, can not help this co-financing. It is also a matter of strategy and organization. ” He notes that in the private sector, many companies have already established strategies and gone further, conducting feasibility studies and allocating resources for financing. Unfortunately, in the public sector, things are not moving as fast.