Romanian Road Infrastructure To Catch Up With W Europe In 130 Years – Study

With an annual growth rate of 30% in infrastructure investments until 2012, Romania has the most dynamic road construction market in the region, followed by Russia and Slovakia, which may increase their infrastructure investments by 25% and 20% per year, respectively, over the next four years, the study shows.

However, Romania’s rapid growth is due to very low funds assigned to infrastructure over previous years rather than to the money that will be invested in the future.

"Even if the Romanian market increases an annual 30% until 2012 and the market in Poland increases only 11%, the funds Poland invested last year in road infrastructure are 4.5 times higher than the money assigned by Romania in this sector. If the 30% growth rate is maintained, Romania will need 130 to 150 years to catch up with Western European road infrastructure standards," A.T. Kearney consultant Iulian Circiumaru said in a press release Monday.

The density of roads in Romania is four times lower than in other Eastern and Central European countries and 14 times lower than in developed countries. Romania is thus highly attractive for road infrastructure investments. The attractiveness of the local market increased considerably because the Romanian government assigned EUR10 billion for public investments in infrastructure in 2009 and the European Union assigned EUR3.4 billion for Romania to use in development projects.

According to A.T. Kearney, Romania has seen major differences between what politicians said they would do for infrastructure and what was in fact done.

"The difference wasn’t caused by lack of funding or lack of demand for better infrastructure. The truth is Romania hasn’t done its homework to attract EU funds and private investors. Authorities were incapable of developing and unfolding projects and public-private partnerships,” Circiumaru said.