Ciolos: We have to prove Romanian capital can be developed without dealing witg Gov't

Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos on Thursday said the Romanian capital needs to be strengthened, but that should be achieved in a smart way, without doing business with Government exclusively, and without political friendships. 

"'Abroad' can also mean us who return home. We can take responsibility ourselves for certain changes that some years ago we would think possible on foreign investment only. (...) Right now (...) perhaps because there is an electioneering being prepared, some ate trying to exacerbate that the wrong way. When they ask about foreign investment, we say Romanian capital, and I do not want to deride that. I believe we need to strengthen the Romanian capital, but we have to do it in a smart way and not against someone or replacing something, but making room for us because we can be better ourselves and prove that we can be better and develop Romanian capital without doing business with the government exclusively or along political friendship lines. That does not mean business contracts with the government are bad, because we need highly performing business people from the private sector. (...) Working with the government as well is a good thig, but that should be done transparently and objectively. (...) In addition, I believe we need to develop the Romanian capital sustainably, meaning development should be robust, long-lasting, based on the potential on which it can capitalise," Ciolos told a Repatriot Summit hosted by the National Bank of Romania. 

He mentioned to the point the GovITHub, a programme developed by the Romanian Government jointly with the private sector and entrepreneurs in order to increase public service quality with the aid of technology. 

"We do have 20 fellowships at Government. You may probably heard about that GovITHub platform, (...) where Romanian and foreign IT experts were invited to help us advance better and quicker in some IT platform at governmental organisations. (...) Initially, we contemplated 10 fellowships, but in the end we doubled to number to 20 because we had nearly 2,000 applications from Romanians inside and outside Romania," Ciolos told the Repatriot summit. AGERPRES