The Romanian Regional Development and Tourism Ministry will collaborate with Facebook in promoting Romania as a tourist destination on the social media website, the ministry has announced. Tourism minister Elena Udrea and Black Chandlee, VP and Commercial director with Facebook for the EMEA region, held a joint press conference to detail the collaboration on Tuesday, November 2, from 10,00 hours. The ministry will work with Facebook representatives to establish an integrated social media and new media strategy, organize training sessions for ministry employees and for representatives of the tourism industry in Romania.

The Turkish capital markets surveillance body (SPK) has started an investigation into fund manager Mark Mobius of Franklin Templeton over alleged market manipulation following requests from Turkish investors, senior SPK officials said on Monday, quoted by Reuters newswire.

Australian investment fund APN/UKA, which owns the City Mall shopping center in Bucharest, has asked for the insolvency of the Romanian company which runs the shopping mall, Victoria Holding.

A supersonic jet fighter aircraft MiG 21 Lancer crashed Monday near Campia Turzii, central Romania

Canadian oil and gas company Sterling Resources has ended the agreement with Melrose Resources BV for Sterling's Pelican and Midia blocks, offshore Romania, the company has announced. "The inability to obtain assignment approval has impeded progress on the Ana and Doina discoveries, as well as further exploration and appraisal activities on the blocks," according to the company.

Airline company Carpatair has flown in 200 foreign tourists who spent their Halloween in Transylvania, the firm has announced. The German and Italian tourists bought tickets as part of Carpatair's promotional sale. Foreigners visited mainly the Bran and Sighisoara areas.

Iñaki Berroeta (in picture) is the new CEO of telecom company Vodafone in Romania, replacing Liliana Solomon from the beginning of December this year, the company has announced. Inaki Berroeta joins Vodafone Romania from the helm of the subsidiary in Malta, where he has been GM for three years.

Romania and the International Monetary Fund have reached an agreement at the experts' level and the results of the discussions were good, according to Jeffrey Franks, head of the IMF mission to Romania (in picture, right). The fund expects to ask for the IMF's board approval mid-January, to unlock a new loan tranche for Romania – around EUR 900 million.

With its EU accession in 2007, Romania has gained access to much needed financing alternatives in agriculture; the main sources of funding are the direct payments and those through the National Program for Rural Development. The proper use of the financing for the farming sector could trigger a more competitive Romanian agriculture, the increase in the number of jobs in rural areas, as well as the sustainable development of rural areas. Romania-Insider.com looks at the main features of the EU funds for agriculture, an area which could become one of the country's competitive advantages if properly taken care of, as well as at several foreign investments in Romanian agriculture.

BRD-Groupe Societe Generale posted a profit of EUR 113 million in the first nine months of the year, down 28 percent on the level registered at the end of September last year, according to the bank. Its banking revenues were of EUR 634 million, up 5 percent.

The Bucharest state-owned metro company Metrorex transported almost 90 million passengers in the first half of the year, according to data from the Transport Ministry. Last year, 170 million passengers used the Metrorex network, and in 2008, 182 million.

Romania currently has the most unsustainable public pensions system among all the emerging economies in the EU, according to a report issued by international rating agency Standard&Poor’s. The Romanian public pensions system will see an increase in pension expenses by 6.4 percentage points of the GDP in the following decades, from a current 8.4 percent of the GDP, to 14.8 percent of the GDP in 2050.