| Headline: Reforms bear fruit as populism fades Source: Euromoney Date: January 2002 Author: Chris Shevlin In Bucharest, the government of former communists has made remarkable strides in pushing through economic reforms including privatization of Banca Agricola and ailing steel company Sidex. It has even made some progress on banking regulation. If sustained, this should help the country catch up with neighbours in attracting foreign direct investment and bring it closer to eventual EU accession.
Radulescu is president of Romania’s recently privatized Banca Agricola and he believes that the market will always win in the end. This is one of the reasons for his optimism that Romania will reform successfully and eventually join the European Union. He admits though: “I was always optimistic about Romania’s future, but sometimes that optimism was not totally justified.” His optimism seems much more realistic now that the economy has finally begun to grow again – although GDP is still only 75% of what it was in 1989. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||