Closing Ceremony - Adrian Nastase

IRU XXVIII^th World Congress
Under the Patronage of the President of Romania, Ion Iliescu

Closing Ceremony

(Represented by Mr Vochina)

Adrian Nastase
Prime Minister of Romania

"The road ahead”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Romanian Government, it is a great pleasure for me to address you in conclusion of this important international forum, that groups together 168 national associations of transport operators.

Picking up Romania to venue the XXVIIIth IRU World Forum honours us and is a token of your confidence in the Romanian transport operators. On the other hand, I do believe that the days you’ve spent in Bucharest were an opportunity for you to get better acquainted with Romania, with the rapid and deep-going changes pursuing the achievement of a fully operational market economy and of European integration.

The theme of this Congress - Emerging Markets: Challenges and Opportunities – is most topical for us. The Government is deeply committed to firm actions targeting the finalization, by the end of our term in office, of the transition from a command economy to the market economy. 

In point of economic development, we are on the right track. This year will be the third in a row when we can report economic growth  and a constant drop in inflation. We hope that owing to the policies that we are going to implement, economic growth will be kept at 4.5 -5% in the coming years, too, while the inflation rate will be a one-digit figure. We focus on bringing the privatization process to an end, in parallel with attracting an ever larger volume of direct investment in the economy. I would say that, also owing to the regulations that we have adopted in order to improve the business environment, we are an ever more attractive country to investors.

Our particular concerns further target the removal of all those barriers that still stand in the way of business, especially obstacles in the way of road transport.

Road transport has a very important role to play in the process of development we have committed ourselves to. As was reiterated on several ocassions during this Congress, an efficient road transport is a sine qua non pre-requisite of development and economic growth.

We are fully aware of this fact and that is why our Government has set to implement several big-scope programmes of rehabilitation, modernization and development of the road transport infrastructure, particularly for those Trans-European corridors that cross our territory. The implementation of these programmes calls for a considerable financial effort to be made by the Romanian state, yet we also count on the support of the European Union and of its financial institutions.

The finalization in a few years of the programmes that we have initiated for the rehabilitation and modernization of the infrastructure will increase Romania’s potential in road transport, a potential that is anyway considerable, due to the size of the country and the quality of the staff.  

We are in full process of accession to the European Union and therefore it is but natural for our partners in Europe to account for the largest share in our trade exchanges.

On the other hand, we are nevertheless trying to win back some of Romania’s « traditional » markets. We wish to have an arrangement in place likely to facilitate exchanges with areas such as the Middle East or the Far East, where we have old and valuable partners, whom we want to regain as commercial destinations.

In this context, let me congratulate you on designating Japan as host of the next IRU Congress.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The debates of the Congress have focussed on important topics, such as sustainable development, the role of infrastructure, customs facilities, partnership between the emerging economies and the developed economies, the impact of new technologies. I’m convinced that these debates have generated ideas and solutions that deserve the full attention of governments.

In this context, let me salute the adoption by IRU of the Declaration of Bucharest, that sums up the main conclusions drawn during the Congress. The Romanian Government shall carefully scrutinize this document in order to see what measures can be adopted for the development of high quality road transport, with as little harmful impact as possible on the environment.

As far as we are concerned, we are fully aware that we cannot succeed by ourselves in achieving what we have set to do. Our success in the economic, social and environmental protection areas closely depends on our work-together with the private sector, with the employers’ associations. Let me assure you that both IRU and the Romanian transport operators will have a constant and reliable partner in us.

Let me end by saying – once again setting out from the title of this event: emerging markets – that I hope from the bottom of my heart that in several years’ time, when a new event is organized to address this topic, Romania will present a success story of modernization and adjustment to globalization processes!

Thank you!

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