National Strategy for Romania's Durable Development 2030, launched

The Department for Durable Development within the Romanian Government's General Secretariat (SGG) launched on Monday the National Strategy for Romania's Durable Development 2030 which provides for, among other things, the setting up of an inter-departmental committee in the filed led by the prime minister according to Agerpres.

"Our request through this strategy: the setting up of an inter-departmental committee for durable development led by the prime minister and in her absence by Mrs deputy prime minister, the Environment minister. Why is this committee very important? It actually is Romania's Government; every year, 4 or 5 times, or every time it is necessary, it will analyse the stage where we are with respect to the strategy's implementation, but for this we need studies, materials, these meetings need to be prepared, that is why we want to establish a consultative council for durable development, made up of the nation's wise people, people trained in various fields," state advisor Laszlo Borbely, coordinator of the Department for Durable Development said on the occasion of the strategy's launch.

He said that the strategy also refers to centers for sustainable development, which does not mean new posts, as until now there were dedicated people at the level of ministries and at other levels with regard to sustainable development.

"We facilitate the establishment of a coalition for sustainable development of the civil society, which is about to be achieved," Borbely said.

He reminded that in the first six months of 2019 Romania will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"This strategy and sustainable development will be a priority, we will have a document at EU level, I hope that the Committee will present it in January, this will actually be the beginning of a new EU-level strategy. (..) There has been an EU Strategy [for Sustainable Development, ed.n.] since 2006, now the Committee - I hope in January - will present a reflection paper which is the Commission's obligation. Based on this document, we need to start reviewing the EU's strategy on different segments until 2030," said Borbely.

Among the targets mentioned in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of Romania 2030 are: eradicating extreme poverty for all citizens; eradicating malnutrition and keeping the obesity rate below 10 percent, similar to the level recorded in 2014; completing the land registry; doubling the share of agriculture in Romania's GDP compared to 2018; completely digitizing the health system and, implicitly, removing printed documents and registers on paper; reducing the dropout rate of the education system; pursuing the closing of the gender pay gap; substantially increasing the efficiency of water use in industrial, commercial and agricultural activities.

Other objectives to be achieved by Romania by 2030 are: the extension of the transmission and distribution networks for electricity and natural gas in order to ensure the access of domestic, industrial and commercial consumers to safe sources of energy at acceptable prices; keeping a GDP rise rhythm higher than the EU average, concurrently with the application of the principles of sustainable development and steady improvement of the living standards of the population; modernizing and developing quality, reliable infrastructure; ensuring access to adequate housing conditions for all citizens; the gradual transition to a new development model based on the rational and responsible use of resources with the introduction of elements of the circular economy; developing green infrastructure and using the services provided by natural ecosystems through integrated river basin management and wetland management.