UK Firms Don’t Invest In Romanian Infrastructure Over Difficulty In Getting Paid

The reason why British firms don't invest in Romanian infrastructure works is that it is often difficult for them to get receipts and get paid for the work done, Anstee said.

He said, however, that a part of Romania achieving success in the future will be to invest in infrastructure, to develop transport, water supply system and hospitals.

"This might be a struggle for the budget deficit but there is a significant amount of structural EU funding available of about EUR30 billion for Romania by 2013," Anstee said Tuesday during a business breakfast organized by the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce.

He said private-public partnerships will assist funding such investments and welcomed Romania's plans to improve legislation regulating private-public partnerships.

Anstee said 10-15% of capital investments in the UK since 1996 have been made under private-public partnerships.

"We have made mistakes too but we like to take the opportunity to pass on the lessons we have learned," Anstee said, adding it is essential to educate public servants.

He also said many other fields may be explored in Romania, such as private management, insurance and risk management, education and professional training.

Speaking about Romanian companies, Anstee said the best thing they could do is to list themselves on the London Stock Exchange.

"We should be able to create in Romania a business environment that is more transparent than it is now. (...) However, there are some obstacles to this goal, and improving ways of doing business is one of them," Anstee said, adding a second obstacle is corruption, which places Romania somewhere between Brazil and Greece. "It's not a very good place," Anstee said.

The Lord Mayor of the City of London is elected for one year and the position is unpaid and apolitical. The City of London is one of the world's leading international finance centres. As head of the City of London Corporation, which provides business and local government services to the City, the Lord Mayor of London's principal role is of ambassador for all UK-based financial and professional services.

If you liked this story, please follow MEDIAFAX.RO on FACEBOOK »

The content of mediafax.ro is for your information only. Republishing or using this content is forbidden without express consent of MEDIAFAX. For this consent, please ask for it by mail at vanzari@mediafax.ro.