Romania sets new national priority: to bring the Romanians abroad back home

Romania’s Government will make a priority of getting Romanians abroad to return to the country, according to the state’s high officials. “The Romanians’ presence abroad should become a matter of choice not necessity,” said Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis in a conference dedicated to the diaspora, which he hosted at the Cotroceni Palace on Tuesday, February 23. “Romania can’t afford to waste the precious human capital that is represented by our countrymen living abroad. They are not just the ambassadors of the Romanian soul and the representatives of our culture and traditions, but have also proven to be entrepreneurs by the very path they have chosen. They are sources for investment, research, artistic and cultural projects. They are development and modernization vectors for the country,” said Klaus Iohannis. He added that the Romanians who left abroad were not only a loss for the country but also an opportunity. “Romanians living abroad accumulate experience, get knowledge and skills, and build contact networks they wouldn’t have had in the country. These represent a precious capital that can be intelligently harnessed. Either we talk about Nobel worthy specialists, Romanians who excel in their professions, who work honestly, Romanians abroad have something useful to offer to their country. They come with professional, intellectual, financial, social, but also civic capital, having had the experience to live in stable democracies with efficient public service systems,” the President pointed out. He expressed his hope that more Romanians would return to the country once they see that the state changes its approach related to its people. He also added that Romania needed to create more opportunities to get these people to return and invest back home. Romania’s Government will focus on encouraging Romanians abroad to return and invest in the country, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said in the same conference. “The Romanians abroad sent some EUR 1.5 billion to the country each year, but the Romanian diaspora’s economic and investment potential is tens of billions of euro,” Ciolos said. According to him, the Romanians abroad hesitate to return to the country not only because of the salary level, but mostly because of the social services’ quality in Romania. “They have gotten used to a certain standard of public services abroad, such as education, healthcare, public administration, and they want to be able to provide a decent future to their children, if they decide to come back and invest their capital in the country,” the Prime Minister explained. He added that the Romanians abroad also wanted to see the state’s reform. The Government plans to stimulate Romanians abroad to invest in Romania. “A specific area where Romania would have very much to gain by stimulating Romanians abroad to return is the development of the Romanian village, and I’m thinking at the Romanians from the countryside who have left to other EU member states where they have worked in agriculture in the past ten years,” Ciolos said. The Government also plans to develop a scholarship system for Romanian children abroad who want to study in the Romanian language and for those interested in research. More than three in five (52%) of Romanians abroad want to invest in Romania and they would invest their money in tourism or agriculture, according to the “Romanians in Diaspora” study made by Open-I Research for the Romanian Business Leaders (RBL) association. Some 83% of those who participated in the survey said the main obstacle that prevented them from returning was corruption. However, 58% said they would return to be close to their loved ones. RBL launched last year the Re>Patriot project, which aims to become a free and complete consultancy platform for Romanians abroad who want to invest in the country. “We believe that the first priority is to attract entrepreneurs, those who create valuable jobs. Only through economic development we can keep and bring back doctors, teachers, and IT&C specialists,” said Marius Bostan, Romania’s Communications Minister and the initiator of the Re>Patriot project.