THE "REAL ESTATE videoconferinta, investitii, imobiliare, achizitii, publice, pandemie AND PUBLIC PROCUREMENT DURING THE PANDEMIC" VIDEOCONFERENCE / ADRIAN VASCU, PARTNER AT VERIDIO: "Tender books are a major issue in Romania"

It is extremely important that the national digital inventory of buildings (real estate and public buildings) be made public after it is completed by the Government next year, says Adrian Vascu, Veridio partner and moderator of yesterday's debate. He also noted that tender books are a big problem in Romania.

Vascu specified: "It is extremely important the inventory of buildings be made public as well. The energy efficiency of buildings, with those certificates, ought to materialize in the future in the public perception regarding the market value of those houses as well, because the investments may have a certain classification, obviously, but when one buys a home and it is classified as part of, say, category A or category B, that should have an impact on the price.

But for this, we, the population, who are part of the real estate market, ought to be informed on the classifications of those properties, on how many of them there are ... I want to remind you that in Romania the list of real estate transactions is not accessible to the public at all. No one knows the prices that homes sell for. The more transparent the markets become, the Government's measures will also be shifted to consumers who are ultimately the ones who solve the problem of demand and payments, of the money that enters the very economy".

Vascu said that tender books are one major issue for Romania.

"The state is an intangible authority and so I think that the responsibility falls on the ones writing the tender book content and who cover their bases based on ... how much experience they have in all the fields in which tender books are drafteds. But the tender books are a big problem. "Company certification should exist in many areas, real certification should be a criterion in the tender book, since we're talking about the what similar experience and the ability to do means," Adrian Vascu said.

Towards the end of the conference, Vascu further said: "What I have found during this discussion is that I have very strongly reiterated the gap that exists: on one side, there is the private segment that experiences the reality every day and which has been saying for decades that we need infrastructure, that we need to streamline public procurement, we need to put emphasis now on staff retention and of the people working in Romania, we need to support domestic capital at this time, and on the other side, we have seen that all of these measures are written in dossiers, documents that are hundreds of pages long. So, theoretically, they exist, what is missing is a "bridge", a connection between these two sides, because on one hand I think what we are all interested in to effectively see that things get done and that those hundreds of kilometers of highway get done, because by now, we should have highways criss-crossing the country . In reality, we are not even capable of connecting the north and the south, and so on, but we keep talking with stern faces about plans, plans, plans. We know what the two sides are, and what we are waiting for is action, action and more action, and to see the things that are happening, that we have learned something from the pandemic, because I have a feeling of deja-vu that I have heard these talks before, about the projects that are going to get done".

Vascu also called for the simplification of the bureaucracy when it comes to attracting European grants.