AT THE REUNION OF FOREIGN INVESTORS, Traian Băsescu blasts businesspeople

• "Breaking the law has almost become sport for businesspeople"

Breaking the law, whether by using black market labor or avoiding paying taxes, has almost become a sport for the business sector, president Traian Băsescu said yesterday.

The statement was made during the conference "Partnership for economic growth in 2011", organized by the Council of Foreign Investors.

President Băsescu said the following in his speech to the businesspeople attending the conference: "We think we shouldn"t have to place a policeman and a labor department inspector in every company (...), but it has almost become a habit for the business sector to break the law, whether by using black market labor or dodging the payment of taxes. (...) No country would succeed in efficiently fighting tax evasion and black market labor if the professional associations weren"t extremely interested in upholding the law".

President Traian Băsescu criticized the professional associations for the high volume of illegal employees and asked them to comply with the law.

"This is also a matter of the responsibility of the professional associations. We keep hearing about how the long list of duties that the state has. But companies have a list that is just as big. How many people should the state have to fight tax evasion and black market labor? These issues can not be solved without cooperation", Băsescu said.

He reiterated his opinion that the Labor Code needs to become more flexible in order to allow businesses to hire and fire employees more easily, in order to lower the rate of "black market labor". "An issue that the government, the presidency and the parliament have become concerned with lately is the amendment of the Labor Code, which is badly needed. We have reviewed 28,000 households and it has been found that 1.6 million people that left for work every day were not registered in the field of labor", president Traian Băsescu said.

• Băsescu: The only ones talking about the economy are those who spread disinformation to further their own petty interests

President Traian Băsescu yesterday summoned foreign investors to get more involved in explaining the economic realities, saying that they are being replaced on TV "by all kinds of amateurs who are defending their own pocket-sized businesses". "I only have on regret when looking at the people in this room, and that is the fact that people in this room don"t go on TV to talk about the economy, instead being replaced by people who don"t have a clue about economics and politics", Traian Băsescu said, quoted by Mediafax.

According to president Băsescu, one thing that would be very useful and which the members of the association could do, would be to get more actively involved in explaining the way the economy works. "I am convinced that it would be very helpful if it were you discussing economics instead of those who don"t know what they"re talking about, but have their own interests to promote on TV. The benefit would be that the people would become more optimistic, they would see professionals talking about the economy and their solutions for it, instead of people who are clueless, but are there to defend their own interests in some second rate businesses", the head of state said, adding that this was just a suggestion.