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RADOR: News from Romania, 00-05-18
May 18, 2000
CONTENTS
[01] Senate Proceedings;
[02] House of Deputies Proceedings;
[03] Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu Met Leaders of the Governing Coalition;
[04] New Payroll for the National Defence Ministry (MApN);
[05] VINEXPORT Is Seeking Russian Paertners;
[06] Investment in Jiu Valley;
[07] Meeting Between Romanian and OSCE Ofiicials;
[08] Report on the Cotroceni - Kremlin Direct Phone Lines.
[01] Senate proceedings
The Permanent Bureau of the Romanian Senate decided that the draft law on
the privatisation of state-owned farms should be discussed next Tuesday
(May 23) in the presence of the agriculture minister. The economic
commission of the Senate operated a series of changes in the Ordinance
17/2000 on VAT. The commissioners proposed a 10% cut in the VAT on basic
food such as bread, milk, meat and sugar. RADOR
[02] House of Deputies proceedings
At a meeting on Wednesday, the Romanian deputies adopted the draft law on
measures designed to secure the intellectual copyrights during customs
operations. The deputies also adopted articles in the mediation
commission's report on the draft law on the status of the foreigners living
in Romania. RADOR
[03] Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu met leaders of the governing coalition
At a meeting on Wednesday, Romanian Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu presented
the leaders of the governing coalition with the measures designed to
implement Romania's medium term economic development strategy. The leaders
were also informed about the talks the prime minister had with
representatives of the IMF and World Bank. Ion Diaconescu, the leader of
the governing Christian Democrat National Peasant Party (PNTCD), said that
the prime minister was expected to present the plan before parliament on
June 1, after the IMF managing board would decide if Romania was to get the
second instalment of the stand-by loan. RADOR
[04] New payroll for the National Defence Ministry (MApN)
Romanian National Defence Minister Sorin Frunzaverde presented the draft of
his ministry's new payroll to be approved by the Cabinet by the end of the
month. According to the new payroll, the numer of employees is expected to
fall from 2,700 to around 1,900 people. The State Secretariate for
relations with parliament will be dissolved, the Facility Department will
become the Department for Facilities and Services while a number of
departments will be directly co-ordinated by the minister himself. The
minister will also co-ordinate the newly created Directorate for financial
and audit operations, MApN's main credit ordinator. The military units are
expected to preserve 60% of their additional revenues while the remaing 40%
will go to senior ranks. Compensations will be granted to the military
personnel subject to layoffs. RADOR
[05] VINEXPORT is seeking Russian partners
The head of the import-export Department of VIEXPORT, Angela Vermenti,
visited a number of Russian food companies along with a delegation of
Romanian businessmen. Mrs Vermenti said VINEXPORT wasseeking Russian
partners wishing to promote the high-quality natural wines on the Russian
market. She said her mission was rather difficult as the Romanian state did
not provide financial support to the industry. RADOR
[06] Investment in Jiu Valley
The French "Alfa-Omega" company opened a project aimed at setting up a
compound able to include several enterprises in one building. The project
is expected to create 300 new jobs by the end of the year. The 30-
enterprise compound project is assisted by the Romanian Labour Ministry as
part of a programme designed to fight unemployment. The 1.5 billion lei
project is sponsored by the National Solidarity Fund. RADOR
[07] Meeting between Romanian and OSCE officials
Magdalena Dumitru, the president of the Central Election Bureau (BEC), met
Gerard Stoudman, the head of the OSCE Bureau for democratic institutions
and human rights. The talks on Wednesday focused on issues concerning the
local and general elections and the status of the monitors. The BEC
president indicated that the law on general elections should be changed in
order to allow the Bucharest sector constituencies to be seen as a county
consituency. She also agreed with the decision to cut the election campaign
time (from 60 to 45 days) given the current election process in the
country. RADOR
[08] Report on the Cotroceni - Kremlin direct phone lines
The PNTCD deputies and the deputies representing the National Liberal Party
(PNL) in the defence commission of the lower House attended a press
conference on Wednesday to present the media with the preliminary report on
the Cotroceni - Kremlin secret direct phone lines. The report concludes
that the negotiations over the matter were against Romania's strategic
interests, and former President Ion Iliescu violated the Constitution and
the national security law. RADOR
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