Mircea Geoana: Romania's current economic model is outdated

Romania risks remaining in the middle-income trap and, if it does not change its current outdated economic model, it will be very difficult for it to evolve towards a state with a high level of development, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said today.

He was present in Bucharest at the summit with the theme "The future is now".

Mircea Geoana: The question is whether, continuing on the same models, on the same approaches, we will be able to get out of the trap in which a country like Romania is, the trap of middle incomes, the trap in which the growth development model, the social contract, no longer work to the needs of the contemporary world. In my opinion, Romania's current economic model is outdated. It has relied for too long on low wages, cheap labor and exports with far too little added value to be competitive and climb the ladder of developed nations. That's why it's very clear that we need to build the future, which is really today, but learning from what we didn't do well or didn't do well enough in the last years, in the last decades, because it takes a much deeper change.

Mircea Geoana emphasized the need for much deeper resilience in society, but also for economic security and supply chains.

He also said that few countries have managed to break out of the middle-income trap in recent decades and gave the example of South Korea.

He also mentioned the efforts made in this direction by some states in our region, such as the Czech Republic, Estonia or Poland.

Translated by: Radu Matei