Former Deputy Prime Minister Dragos Anastasiu believes that, regardless of who will govern, the Romanian state must respect the law in its relation with the business environment, continue debureaucratisation and avoid granting state aid schemes funded by entrepreneurs if it wants to regain trust.

The National Confederation for Women's Entrepreneurship - CONAF in Buzau on Wednesday is holding the county semi-final of the 'Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education' - the 4th edition, an event organised at the 'George Ciprian' Theatre, with Romania's former Deputy Prime Minister Dragos Anastasiu among the entrepreneurs present at the event.

'The economy has developed greatly in recent years. Entrepreneurship has made extraordinary progress and, if we look fairly at what is happening, we will see that many good things have taken place. Entrepreneurship is getting on with its work, entrepreneurs have developed, they have learned a great deal and entrepreneurial education in high schools, along with all the related programmes, including this one we are attending today, have contributed enormously to the evolution of entrepreneurship in Romania. It is not easy, it involves work, vision, risk and courage. It is not easy, but it is well worth it. The Romanian state relies on the economy; without a strong economy there is no strong state, and without local entrepreneurs there is no strong economy. So it is a virtuous circle. And yes, this entire movement is needed and must be supported,' entrepreneur Dragos Anastasiu told AGERPRES.

According to the former Deputy Prime Minister, Romania's economy is an emerging one that has made progress in recent years.

'We often look very critically at our development as a country and yet this country has made extraordinary progress, especially in the past ten years. We have an economy that is beginning to become strong. We are not an economy like Germany or France or Italy, but we are a creative economy, we are an emerging economy. We learn every day and we are becoming stronger and stronger,' explained Dragos Anastasiu.

In the context of recent political changes, the former honorary adviser to the President of Romania for relations with the business environment explained that the Romanian state must continue the process of debureaucratisation while also respecting its commitments to the business sector.

'Of course, after years in which we have lived beyond our means, a moment of correction must come, and this moment of correction is neither easy nor pleasant and may mean a possible economic recession, but it is necessary. There was no other way than through these corrections in order to return to a good path. What I believe the Romanian state should do additionally is to respect the law. It must observe the law, because as long as the Romanian state owes billions of euros to entrepreneurs and does not meet deadlines for permits, it sends a signal of mistrust. The Romanian state cannot demand that entrepreneurs be fair if it is not fair itself. So this is the first thing it should do, and the second is simplification and debureaucratisation, because we are excessively bureaucratised and Europe itself is bureaucratic, but we have added several extra layers and we need to remove them. Why? Because entrepreneurs should focus on business, not on all sorts of things devised in offices. These are two things the Romanian state can do, regardless of who governs. If it does not do these things and instead, as we have seen, some call for state aid schemes funded by entrepreneurs - on the one hand you do not pay them, on the other you provide state aid for certain industries or companies - trust cannot be regained in this way. So the main issue is regaining trust and that is not easy and does not happen overnight, but it must begin,' the former Deputy Prime Minister stressed.

The Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education is aimed at students with entrepreneurial skills, teachers and entrepreneurs who may discover among the teenagers entered in the competition the employees or potential business partners of tomorrow. The entrepreneurial projects developed by 52 high school students are being evaluated by a panel made up of figures from Romania's business environment, with the winning teams to be selected for the final. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Florin Zafiu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)