Business

Social Democrats plan to challenge vote with the Constitutional Court.

Parliament’s joint chambers yesterday rejected the public television company’s 2008 activity report, with 195 votes against the document, 78 in favour and three abstentions, Agerpres reported. The move leads to the immediate removal of the state-run television’s Administrative Council and its general director, Alexandru Sassu. MPs also rejected a Social Democrat deputy’s proposal that the current TVR management board’s term be extended until a new leadership is named. The head of the Chamber of Deputies’ culture committee, Democrat Liberal Raluca Turcan, insisted there was no need for a special Parliament vote on the matter, since current legislation allows the board to go on as caretaker for 15 days until its successor is appointed.

The World Bank Country Director, Central European and Baltic Countries Peter Harrold, reaffirmed the institution’s support for Romania’s reform agenda and expressed optimism with the process outcome, after a visit to our country. “This is about how the Government can deliver better services to the population,” said Harrold. “It is critically important to continue with structural reforms in order to ensure fiscal sustainability and economic growth in Romania”, he said in a press release. The Romanian counterparts agreed the World Bank partnership with Romania must be continued and discussed the scope for collaboration in a number of areas in the coming years. These priority areas will be determined by the World Bank in close cooperation with the Government and other partners, notably the EU, and might include administrative reforms and monitoring of sector policies, social sector reforms for inclusive growth, and support for the key agricultural sector. Involvement in other pillars mentioned by the national reform plan and by the EU 2020 strategy (for example knowledge economy, or regional development) will also be considered, Peter Harrold said. These are areas where the World Bank has significant experience and accumulated knowledge. An increased engagement of the Bank with regional and local governments and a gradual phasing-in of World Bank fee based services for the Romanian Government, particularly in relation to increasing Romania’s capacity of absorbing EU funds, were also envisaged. The World Bank has provided support to Romania in the context of the financial crisis, as part of a package of support from the IMF, EU and the Bank. The first Development Policy Loan (DPL) for Euro 300 MLN, which is part of a series of three totaling Euro 1 bln, was disbursed on October 2009.

Asesoft International will provide the Romanian Gendarmerie with an e-learning platform deployed to the 62 units of the institutions situated in a total of 53 areas. The value of the contract awarded on March 15 is RON 19.12 mln including VAT, Mediafax informs. Only one other bidder participated, apart from Asesoft International. The new project is for the development of training courses consisting of a total of 690 four-hour training sessions broken down into seven different specializations on five levels of difficulty, addressing specific themes such as induction, career development (change of specialisation, specialisation, improvement, promotion in rank), foreign languages and other lines of training (psychology, project management). The programme will be financed through the European Regional Development Fund.