Romania

The architecture of the healthcare system is wrong and needs to be changed. On the one hand, the National Health Insurance House, which manages almost 4 billion euros in funds of the system, says its hands are tied because it is forced by legislation to finance all Romanian hospitals even if they do not provide quality services, on the other hand, the Health Ministry says there has been no control of the system because of the lack of an IT system.

The 2011 budget must be built taking into account a 24% VAT level, and the document has to be approved by the Parliament by mid-December, as pledged by Boc Government in the additional letter of intent addressed to the IMF, which was approved yesterday.

The five members of the Representatives Committee at Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund - FP) have a series of major responsibilities, such as to oversee how Americans at Franklin Templeton will manage the 3.4 billion-euro fund assets and write reports that will be presented to shareholders.

Diverta, a major book distributor, under insolvency, has closed eight stores. The retailer owned by businessman Octavian Radu plans to shut down another four bookstores by yearend, including the one on Bucharest's Magheru Boulevard, cutting down its retail area by 20%.

The domestic pharmaceutical market rose by 26% in the first six months of this year, to over 4.8bn RON (1.15bn euros), sustained by the second quarter trend, according to a ZF estimate based on data provided by Cegedim Romania market research firm.

RBS Romania, the domestic subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland group, nationalised last year by the British government in the wake of heavy losses, will switch again mainly to the corporate client segment, while the weight of retail operations will be low, says Johan Gabriels, who took over the reins of the operations last year.

Two fashion brands, Mariella Burani and Alb şi Negru, gave up their stores on Calea Victoriei, known as the only "luxury" shopping street comparable with the major boulevards of European capitals.

The decline in banking activity, reflected in the reduction of interest rate revenues, generated two-digit net profit declines for many big banks on the market that were unable to cut spending to match the revenue decline.

The biggest foreign furniture retailers on the domestic market, IKEA and kika, are betting on a promotion strategy based on catalogues this autumn, in which they invest over 1.5m euros together.

In an official visit to Bucharest to tackle the issue of the Rroma community, French state secretary Pierre Lellouche declared that France might oppose Romania's entering Schengen if it lacks an action plan to integrate the Rroma. However, Romania's Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi said that a common, detailed plan was already sent to French authorities on this matter.