By RBJ
The Romanian state owns, through the Government of Romania, 216 companies, which employ around 83,000 people and generate approximately 7% of Romania’s GDP, said Mihai Călin Precup, secretary of state in the Ministry of Finance, on Monday.
“I realized that since I have been at the Ministry of Finance, the topic of state-owned companies has become extremely interesting for all the international bodies we work with. And here we are talking about the OECD, with whom we work on the development of the capital market, we are talking about PNRR , where we even have a very clear objective of improving corporate governance regarding state companies. Especially since the Romanian state owns, through the Government of Romania, 216 companies, which employ around 83,000 people and generate around 7% of GDP- of Romania. So here is that the Government of Romania has a rather large impact on the real economy through these companies and has become a priority from the point of view of monitoring the performance of these companies, as well as the efficiency of corporate governance,” stressed Mihai Călin Precup, at an event regarding the capital market.
He stated that another element that the institution is working on is the code of conduct regarding the governance of state companies.
“There is already a code of conduct at the level of the Stock Exchange, which is optional for now. The Romanian government has 18 companies that are listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and have subscribed to that code. Together with the OECD, we are working on defining a corporate governance code wider that includes all these 216 state companies”, said Mihai Călin Precup, at the 5th edition of the Capital Market Forum, organized by Financial Intelligence.
Also, Precup stated that the Ministry of Finance encourages the issuance of green bonds for the development of the capital market, emphasizing that the institution is working on the legislative framework for the issuance of the first government green bonds. At the same time, several series of Fidelis bond issues took place this year. From 2020 until now, 8 rounds of Fidelis bond issues have been launched, raising 7.4 billion lei and one billion euros.
“I am happy to see the interest of domestic investors in placing their savings with the Romanian Government, which reflects, on the one hand, I would dare to say, a confidence to place their money with the Romanian Government, a confidence that transfers and, on the other hand, a higher degree of financial education because it is clear that the bonds issued by the Romanian state offer much more interesting yields than the banking system can or offers for deposits,” explained the Finance official.
Last but not least, Mihai Călin Precup added that a few days ago the call for private equity funds was launched. The fund has 400 million euros and is managed together with the European Investment Fund. The Ministry of Finance has two representatives in the Supervisory Board of that investment fund, and its objective is to diversify the range of financial instruments available to Romanian companies.
