General News
11 November 2009
Report by Mr. Valentin Stoica, IRF Ambassador in Romania
Since my appointment in 2008, I have striven to give the position of IRF Ambassador to Romania more and more visibility within the roads infrastructure industry. The main objectives of my activity have been to promote IRF among potential partners that may be willing to join our organisation; emphasising the benefits brought to a company or institution through such membership; and facilitating communication between members of IRF in Romania and the Secretariat in Geneva.
With respect to the second part of this mission, the most representative case occurred in May 2008 when I acted as liaison between the IRF and one of its members in Romania during a rather tense moment. The Romanian National Union of Road Hauliers (NURH) decided to protest against the Government over certain restrictions imposed on transporters and with respect to the allocation of road vignette funds. This protest grew in intensity and came to a head when the NURH began blocking major roads with trucks in order to get the Government to sit down and negotiate. At this critical point, the NURH representatives needed IRF support and, together with Mrs. Sibylle Rupprecht, our General Director, we were able to arrange a meeting with Spanish authorities who were able to bring to the table, certain models for administering road funds applied in other countries.
The first activity I was involved in as an IRF Ambassador for Romania was the organisation of the IRF seminar "Combining PPP's with EU Funding", which took place in Bucharest in February, 2008. During this event I also had the opportunity to deliver a presentation "PPP's - a must for Romania". The event was one of the first in Romania to address this important subject in-depth and, as such, was deemed a great success by all those taking part.
Later, in September 2008, together with a prestigious Romanian publication, The Financial Newspaper, I contributed to the organisation of an important road infrastructure debate. During this event, I had the opportunity to present the key knowledge and experience on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) accumulated within the IRF PPP Working Group, and generally raised awareness regarding the important resource that IRF constitutes in this field.
I have also had opportunity to promote our organisation among various companies in Romania and beyond. As a result, a couple of companies, from Greece and Romania respectively, took on board the benefits of partnership and decided to join the IRF. In addition, during business travel in Bulgaria and Moldova, I took advantage of meetings with leaders of various road infrastructure companies to introduce our organisation and promote the benefits of membership status.
Another example of Ambassador activity was identifying a highly qualified specialist from Romania to present our PMS experience at the Senior Road Executives Course organised by IRF’s partners from the University of Birmingham. This presentation was greatly appreciated and will be repeated this year.
Meanwhile, the PPP Programme in Romania is finally taking off. The Ministry notably organised a bid for the Comarnic – Brasov section of the Bucharest – Brasov Motorway. Further to this development in the PPP market, I had the pleasure to contribute an article to the IRF Bulletin's Special Edition on Europe, presenting the status of this procedure, highlighting the major players in the bidding process, the company that was eventually awarded the bid, and the main figures involved in the deal.
In order to enable us to keep in better touch with our partners and potential partners, an electronic database, comprising the most important Romanian companies from the road infrastructure industry, has been put together. This database is used on a regular basis for direct mailing of news and information on important events organised by IRF.
Romania is currently going through difficult financial and political times, and this has led to diminished involvement of Romanian road industry companies in the international sphere. We maintain an optimistic outlook, however, and to make a comeback before too long!
