What do agriculture investors expect from the future government?

Regardless of how the future government will look like, its priority must be to implement pro-growth economic policies, representatives of the local business community told BR. Alongside energy, agriculture is one of the key sectors which with the right incentives in place, could drive economic growth.

George Stanson, business manager Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia Case IH & Steyr Balkans

“Bringing the 1-2 million hectares of land that is not cultivated back into the production system is the only way to generate “added value” in a sector which guarantees the sale of the final product each year. If this is done without delay,Romania’s budget stands only to gain. Related to this, a large share of the land which hasn’t been cultivated for years could be reintroduced into the production system by applying the law that allows foreign companies to buy local farmland from January 2013”.

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 Camelia Sucu, president, Class Living; owner, Iconic Food Wine & Design and Piata de Gros Abundia

“The only thing I truly want and which I publically ask of the new government is that in the future if they can’t make local entrepreneurs’ lives easier, at least don’t complicate them by devising obstacles as has been the case until now. The business environment is a country’s prosperity engine and entrepreneurs themselves have the means to generate progress through their businesses provided they have a legal, fiscal and administrative environment which is at least fair if not visionary. And I admit there is something more that I would hope for: the decency of collaborating if absolute agreement on decisions can never be reached (…) Reducing VAT on foods would for me be the sign that someone is beginning to really want the quality of life to go up in Romania. Also establishing agriculture as a national high-priority sector and stimulating PPPs in strategic domains”.

Victor Ciuperca, area manager, amb Holding

“First of all, there is something inadequate about the phrase “new government”. We are in theory dealing with the same governing political force since May 2012 which has now been confirmed by the popular will (…) If the government keeps the majority of its members and policies, proving that after the political crisis in May 2012 the coalition sent its best to Victoria Palace, then the expectations are in line with the performance so far: high taxes, increased social protection and legal uncertainty for the business environment. However, any manager wants from any government first of all fiscal stability and predictability, measures to reduce unfair competition and the black market, a decrease of tax pressure for employers/employees, a stable exchange rate and of course reduced bureaucracy.

Measures which I would like to see taken include a fiscal amnesty and encouraging local businesspeople with accounts outside the country to bring their cash here with no questions asked for a certain period of time, exempting newly set-up companies with a social capital of under EUR 10,000 from paying profit or revenue tax in the first year of activity and changing the fiscal code to offer investors tax incentives, especially in rural areas”.