Better logistics and transport policies 'could add EUR 25 bln to Romania's GDP'

The right policies in the areas of transport and logistics could contribute up to EUR 25 billion to Romania’s GDP by 2025 and create 150,000 new jobs, concluded participants at the transport and logistics seminar, Romania’s Next Step in Becoming the Eastgate Trade Hub of Central and Eastern Europe.

Romania’s competitive position in Europe in these two areas could be enhanced with the development of the Constanta port, as it becomes a trade hub for CEE.

“The new EU Member States plus Austria today account for more than 12 percent of EU’s GDP, yet the region attracts less than 1 percent of the sea freight coming to Europe. That is a huge imbalance, estimated in our calculations at more than 5 million containers TEU/year and 20 billion tons of bulk commodities, coming mostly from Eastern Asia and the Middle East, which should enter the region directly, but are transiting through north-western Europe,” said Robin Martens, managing director of the European Gateways Platform and director general of Archicom Romania, one of the co-organizers of the conference, alongside European Gateways Platform, the Dutch-Romanian Network, the Netherlands-Romania Chamber of Commerce and PwC Romania.

According to Martens, this situation is because countries in north-western Europe, such as the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, offer attractive fiscal frameworks for freight transporters and logistics operators. In addition, they also have very good infrastructure capabilities for harbors, inland logistics corridors and inland ports. “But for goods coming from Asia, longer routes mean greater costs, longer transport schedules and greater greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

One way for Romania to attract a substantial part of the freight coming from Asia to Central and Eastern Europe would be to devise more attractive tax and legislative frameworks.

“Romania, through its strategic geographical position, could attract a substantial part of the freight coming from Asia to Central and Eastern Europe, if an adequate tax and legislative framework were put in place. We have already seen a solid increase in Romania’s exports in the past year. We are confident that if you add the right set of transport and logistics policies, Romania’s exports could grow even further, by adding the re-exporting of goods coming from Asia, or even semi-finished products and intermediary goods that are assembled in Romania and shipped abroad,” said Peter de Ruiter, president of the Netherlands-Romania Chamber of Commerce and partner, tax and legal services leader at PwC Romania.