România – o economie „planificată” de la distanţă (Romania – another kind of „planned” economy)

• Main Author: Ion-Lucian CATRINA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Institutul European Iasi 2015-12-01
• Series: Polis: Revista de Stiinte Politice
• Subjects: transition; interdependencies; trade; FDI; free market
• Online Access: http://revistapolis.ro/documente/revista/2015/Numarul_4(10)2015/editorial/14.%20Ion-Lucian%20Catrina.pdf

Among all the Eastern European countries that joined the EU after 2000, Romania delayed for several years the economic reforms in order to ensure the transition to free market economy. 25 years after the fall of communism, most of the components of free market are not yet entirely developed: the full restitution of private property is not completed; national capital is still underdeveloped and is strongly dependent on Western European capitals; the lack of loyal competition is almost generalised; most of the gross value added derives from the activities of foreign investors and from a weak agricultural production; foreign trade structure is highly vulnerable to external shocks, while exports are less diversified, both as main branches and orientation to foreign markets; the demographic structure and the low employment rate generate major imbalances in public finances and pensions system. In this context, this paper aims to demonstrate that the transition of Romania to free market economy has not yet been finished, that the 90s economic policies caused a brutal imbalance of the industrial structure and that in the absence of a strong national capital, the domestic production is vulnerable and on the hands of foreign investors who took command of what and how to produce … The paper also aims to demystify the intuitive idea that a state company is a priori an inefficient and uncompetitive one and should be automatically privatized. We wish to draw up some recommendations in order to improve the management of companies still held by the Romanian state.