STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMES 3RD EDITION/ MIHAI IONESCU, ANEIR: "We are going to sue the technocratic government"

Exporters demand professionalism from the future government, said Mihai Ionescu, the president of the National Association of Romanian Exporters and Importers (ANEIR).

"Our first request is for the future government to be professional. Secondly, we would want for it not to overdo it with social policies. If they do that, meaning if they overdo it with social policies without helping the economy, then I don't see a solid future for this country. The third thing that we are asking for is: «Show some love to Romanian capital!»".

Mihai Ionescu warned that this year, the export growth rate is slower than the growth rate of the GDP. Also, this is the first time when Romanian exports outside the EU are dropping, he added.

Another great discontent of the exporters is the elimination of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of the Economy, according to the president of the ANEIR, who stated: "We are disappointed in the fact that the team in the Ministry of the Economy has succeeded in destructuring the Foreign Trade Department. We had a structure that was exclusively in charge of foreign trade. Some people thought we didn't need a department for that. That is not true! The existence of that department is very important. But that is how the technocrats saw fit to help exporters - they have dismantled that structure and they have frozen all departures of those nominated for those positions in the respective embassies. We used to have that kind of representatives in our embassies. This year only a few people went abroad to take those positions and they did so temporarily. Half of Romania's foreign network no longer exists. I am not saying they were geniuses, but we could rely on them. Good or bad, they were there and many of them were useful".

Mihai Ionescu also mentioned the fact that the Ministry of the Economy has blocked the promotion of exports, despite the fact that a lot of money has been allocated from the state budget this year. "We have not even achieved half of the program for the promotion of exports planned in the beginning of this year".

In this context, businesspeople are going to sue the representatives of the government who are guilty of the things mentioned above, like Mr. Ionescu, who mentioned: "We have decided, together with the representatives of the business sector: this government isn't going to go away just by handing over papers. We are going to take them to court, because they have to pay for what they have done and for what they haven't done. They are appointed and paid by us to help the economy. They are going to be taken to court, through criminal lawsuits, filed by the economic professional associations".

Also this year, Mihai Ionescu warned that the Program for the Promotion of Exports (PPE) has been blocked.

About two months ago, exporters have actually asked for the resignation and criminal investigation of Economy minister Costin Borc, for "sabotaging the national economy by blocking the Exporter Promotion Program".

The ANEIR has accused the technocrats of the Economy Ministry of incompetence and superficiality, as they destabilized PPE.

At the time, Mihai Ionescu, the president of the ANEIR made the following statement: "Because of indolence/lack of professionalism/superficiality of the officials in the ministry, Romania's image is seriously affected abroad, and companies that can't attend fairs are left without customers, forced to lay off staff and risking bankruptcy. The same technocratic dignitaries at the top of the Economy Ministry have also succeeded two other negative achievements: destabilizing the functioning of the Foreign Trade Department (by shutting it down a month ago) and gridlocking Romania's network of foreign economic advisors (departures to the positions in question have been halted since the inauguration of the new team at the Ministry)".

In the opinion of Mr. Ionescu, the actions of the "technocrats" have led to a drop in exports.