The energy sector cannot be modernized as long as state companies are lead by inexperienced people, close to the political, US Ambassador to Bucharest Mark Gitenstein said on Thursday. He said that Romania needs 10 billion dollars to modernize the energy sector. read more...

Mobile teams of the National Customs Authority discovered over 3000 boxes containing 30,000,000 Jin Ling cigarettes produced in the warehouse of Galaxy Tobacco SA Company in Sfantu Gheorghe, Central Romania, a press release of the institution informs. read more...

Anti drug police forces confiscated, on Thursday 150 kg of cocaine in the Port of Constanta, hidden in a timber transport from South America, judicial sources declared for the Romanian news agency Mediafax. read more...

President Traian Basescu signed on Thursday the decree promulgating the law modifying and completing the labour code, a press release of the presidency informs. On March 8th, the government took responsibility in the Parliament for the new labor code. Moreover, the motion of censure submitted by the opposition was rejected in the Parliament and the normative act was considered adopted. read more...

Romania’s Interior Ministry postponed lay offs initially scheduled for April 1st since the institution has the money to pay all employees, the institution’s spokesperson Marius Militaru declared quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax. According to Military, all employees should know that the ministry has the resources to pay salaries. read more...

The government discussed a draft of a normative act introducing unique salaries in the educational system so that those who won in court a 50% increase will not be able to benefit of the money, PM Boc declared after a meeting. read more...

Romania’s Higher Court of Justice decided on Thursday to temporary arrest Marius Petcu, accused of bribe taking therefore approving the recourse of anti-graft prosecutors against the decision of a lower court to release Petcu, Romania news agency Mediafax reports. Judges issued a temporary arrest warrant for 29 days for Petcu. read more...

Nestle Swiss company, the biggest player on the instant coffee market with Nescafe, has teamed up with Georgios Repidonis, one of the shareholders in Lacoste importer in Romania, to open several coffee shops in Bucharest, with the first "halt" in Piaţa Romană, near Burger King restaurant, on the site of former Everest restaurant. read more...

Fashion Retail Group (FRG), the company owned by businessman Octavian Radu, which managed over ten fashion brands with 15.7m-euro turnover in 2009, is set to enter bankruptcy, after lenders approved the start of such proceedings, and Alpha Bank and another 40 creditors have few chances or recouping 9.3m euros. read more...

Romania should privatise its energy companies through the Bourse, using the Polish model, as this is the only way it can get necessary investments to modernise and boost the efficiency of the energy sector, stated the US ambassador Mark Gitenstein yesterday. read more...

Italian giant Telecom Italia has sent the owners of Romanian company Prime Telecom an offer to buy in the hope it will succeed in taking over one of the last independent companies on the market, whose main asset is the optical fibre network installed in all county seats of Romania. read more...

BRD and Bancpost, two top ten banks, have already announced their interest to participate in the fourth edition of the "First Home" scheme, under which the Government only guarantees 50% of the loans sold. The decision, announced just one day after the approval of the scheme, shows there is still interest, although several bankers had said recently that the Government's proposals were difficult to apply. read more...

Surprise decision of the National Bank of Romania to cut the minimum foreign reserve requirements ratio on foreign currency-denominated liabilities from 25% to 20%, thereby releasing over one billion euros to banks, is interpreted by bank analysts as a signal encouraging lending and indirectly the economy. read more...

The shares of Oltchim Râmnicu-Vâlcea (OLT), the biggest petrochemical facility in Romania, have been heavily traded by Stock Exchange investors, which brought the shares' market value up by around 70% in just the past month and a half alone. read more...