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Romania’s 2007 ascension to the European Union has triggered a complex process of reforms there, said George Predescu, Romanian consul general in Chicago
“The European project has a symbolic meaning—our return to the European family,” Predescu told students during a discussion at Gleacher Center on November 9. The event was hosted by the Government and Politics Group, which is run by students from the Evening MBA and Weekend MBA programs. “It has pushed us to remove what hindered us from being competitive, adopt thousands of pages of legislation, admit that we still have a lot of problems to solve, and to speed up solving them.”
The most visible sign of Romania’s integration into the EU is the rapid inward flow of foreign capital, Predescu said. For example, Renault plans to invest $128 million in a new engineering center in Romania, has already spent €650 million to buy and convert the country’s old Communist auto plant into a modern production site, and hired 1,400 skilled engineers to work in Romania, he said. “It shows the economy is coming of age and is ready for more sophisticated investments,” Predescu said.
Hewlett-Packard plans to employ 1,200 people at a Romania-based outsourcing center that will serve Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he said.
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