Embassy translation
Bucharest Business Week, No. 19-25.03.2007

St Patrick’s Day – Ireland’s National Day – comes at an intriguing time, both economically and politically for the so called ‘Celtic Tiger’.

The country’s economy has been dramatically changed over the last decade. Unemployment is down from 15 percent in 1989 to virtually nothing today. Net emigration of 208.000 people in the 1980s, has been transformed into a population increase of 609.000 over the last ten years. A once terrible national debt is now insignificant. Ireland has one of world’s most income-rich economies, and the Government recently announced a 184 billion Euro national development plan until 2013. At the same time, economic life in Ireland is not at all rosy: the Dublin Port tunnel, which in 1999 was meant to cost 222 million Euro in 1999 doubled to 449 million Euro one year later whilst the final cost could be more than 1 billion Euro. A project of modernising the main roads had been estimated at 5.6 billion Euro but it will cost more than 16 billion. Only 50% of these projects were finalised last year. It has been promised that more than 4 billion Euro will be allocated to regional programmes, but less than two thirds have been spent. A similar case is the eCommerce project for which only 15% were invested out of the promised amount of 656 million Euro. More than that, the general elections will be organised within the next few months and the main question is not which party will win, but what coalition partner will Fianna Fail, the present Government party choose, whose leader, Bertie Ahern, will candidate for the 4th term. Will it be the Labour Party, the Progress Democrats or even Sinn Fein (which had very good results at the historical elections in Northern Ireland)? Under these circumstances BBW has interviewed Pádraic Cradock, the Ambassador of Ireland to Romania, about the relationships between Ireland and Romania.

Two years since his arrival in Romania, Pádraic Cradock, the Ambassador of Ireland at Bucharest, is content with the evolution of the relationships between the two countries, although from the economic point of view “things could be better”, the Ambassador said.
“The economic cooperation was below the potential. We are working constantly on this project and I am happy that the interest of the Irish business has significantly increased since Romania joined the European Union”, Cradock said.

As for the Irish companies that have come to Romania over the last year, the Ambassador said that most of them are operating in the real estate field while “others are considering the possibility of establishing here”. One of the companies interested in setting up business in Romania, is Ryanair, the law-cost air company. Due to some conditions imposed by the Romanian authorities, Ryanair’s arrival has been delayed, but the Ambassador said that it is a very dynamic company and will come to Romania when the conditions allow it.

Nevertheless, the interest of Irish investors is on the rise. The volume of trade of the first 11 months of 2006, was more than 200 million Euro. Ravensdale Investments, Moritz Holding or RI Investments are just a few names of companies that exist on the Romanian market already. The Economic co-operation has been strengthened by visits of delegations led by the Irish Minister for Trade. Cradock expects that a new visit will be organised this year, but its date has not been established yet. The Irish Ambassador believes that a very strong partnership will be built up between the two EU countries. From this point of view, Cradock thinks that the absorption of “the post-accession 32 billion Euro financial support allocated for a short period of time and the funds administration” will be a real challenge for Romania. In this respect, Ireland could be a model for Romania: “When Ireland became member of the European Community in 1973, the economy was underdeveloped, while the unemployment and immigration reached high levels. I think that the main factor that improved this situation was massive investment in education and training, which yielded results only after some time. Of course, there are aspects of our experience that could be of interest to Romania. For instance, we have experience in accessing European structural and social funds, which we are glad to share with our Romanian partners”. As for calling Ireland the “Celtic Tiger”, Cradock mentioned: “The word was invented by the media in 1990s, based on the South-Eastern African Tigers of that moment. It has never been given an official attribute, but it was a way of recognising Ireland’s accelerate economic increase compared to the rest of the European countries and the OECD. The increase is still substantial but the difference compared to other countries is not that significant”.

Another issue the Ambassador tackled concerned the measures to be taken in the rural areas that should improve the standards of life of those living there.

Ambassador Cradock also brought into discussion the situation of the Romanian citizens who want to work in Ireland. “We must think in a positive way. Visas are no longer needed, which means great progress for the Romanian community in Ireland. Regarding those who want to work there, they need work permits. This is a transitory measure, imposed by real factors in the labour market”, explained the Ambassador, mentioning that Ireland was one of the three EU member states that didn’t set any restrictions on the states that joined in 2004. This decision led to an influx of workers from the new member states.

More than 300.000 people have come to work in Ireland, whose population barely exceeds 4 million inhabitants. Although, generally speaking, this was considered a positive thing, there have been some problems in certain areas. At that point, the local authorities asked for governmental support in order to control the ones in search for jobs, explained the Ambassador. “The measure is permitted by the accession treaty and the government will keep the matter under review”.

The Irish celebrate success
Around 300 guests gathered at the Novotel Hotel last Friday to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, event which has been organized by The Ambassador of Ireland, Padraic Cradock, his wife Soula, representatives of the Embassy and of Enterprise Ireland. Also, BBW organized a Celtic music night at Orange Concept store, in honour of the Emerald Isle’s National Day.

Speaking at the Friday event, the Irish Minister of State, Noel Ahern, welcomed Romania into the EU, mentioning that Ireland had greatly benefited from the opportunities given by joining EU and hoped that Romania would do the same. “It has nothing to do with walking on the red carpet, but opportunities do exist”.

Irish-Romanian companies such as: Tax Back International, Alphyra Romania, Project Management and FTI (along with the Minister of Finances) are being set up. Irish consultants are working on a national tourism development plan. Secretary of State, Anton Niculescu, represented the Government at the event.