Aspen Romania Economic Policy Program

Aim
This policy program is created to significantly shape and ensure a better outcome for the economic policymaking process in Romania, focusing on three transversal areas: workforce policies, financing and entrepreneurship, infrastructure planning and forecast. The program will be using input from a comprehensive project community of private and public sector decision-makers.

Objective
 To offer a permanent, non-partisan platform for structured dialogue and solutions generation.
 To be a major competitiveness driver for the Romanian economy and business operating here, by acting as an ideas supplier and permanent partner for the Romanian government and business community.
 To design a comprehensive policy review looking at the regulatory framework with impact on economic opportunities in three areas: fiscal, employment and general regulatory
 To promote a set of policy measures targeting SME's establishment and development, in particular access to venture capital and European funding
 To design sector relevant policy packages addressing transversal issues like skill development, entrepreneurship, business-to-business relations
 To promote a greater involvement of the financial sector in creating growth
 To advance proposals for the creation of financial incentives for the development of the agricultural sector
 To contribute to setting priorities for priority targeting of European financing
 To offer support to cluster development
 To stimulate private sector and EU structural financing investment in workforce and skill development
 To work towards achieving a balance between government policy, evolving private sector needs through a proactive, flexible education
 To contribute to ensuring that Romania meets the EU convergence requirements, despite fiscal tightening

Concept
The Economic Opportunities Program is conceived to function under the joint oversight of two co-presidents and will be coordinated by a program director. Financed through partnership agreements, it will work closely with the Aspen Institute. Through partnerships with sector oriented public and private institutions, on the one hand, and the academia and think tanks, on the other, two platforms will be created: a "policy interests" one and a "policy ideas" one.

The program will deploy a series of activities in conjunction with its leadership activity. It will organize an Aspen Industrial Policy and Structural Enablers Round-Table, focusing on three industries: automotive, infrastructure and construction, industrial machinery, and consultations and events in both closed format and open sessions on each of the agreed policy priority areas:

1. Regulatory framework for investment, from both corporate and SME development perspective
2. Industrial and economic development enablers: entrepreneurship, physical and human infrastructure, human capital and EU structural financing
3. Sector priorities and mid-term economic planning via a business and esp. local business perspective
It will create an agenda of consultations and events in both closed format and open sessions on each of the agreed policy priority areas. Following, for each agenda topic a set of concrete proposals will be presented to government agencies, ministries as well as other political institutions. Finally the implementation of policy in these areas will be monitored and considered for further regulatory and policy input from the program.

The key products of the program will be: policy briefs for the use of public and private sector establishing clear policy objectives and reasoning; yearly White Papers on fundamental policy reform perspectives and implications; policy events matching Romanian, regional and European perspectives; policy training and formative sessions for private and public sector decision makers.