What the newspapers say: August 4, 2008

A new Regional Operational Program launched by the government targets important county-residences, one newspaper reads on Monday. Elsewhere in the news, politicians manage to obtain doctorate honors by taking advantage of their influential position. Last but not least, Romanian farmers have every chance of growing kiwi or dates due to climate changes.

Cotidianul reads about a new governmental program, the Regional Operational Program who plans to support regional development so as to decrease economic disparities between county-residences and the capital city.

Thus, the government targets cities like Constanta, Timisoara, Ploiesti, Craiova,Cluj Napoca, Brasov and Iasi – important economic centers across Romania. Authorities plan to target these cities and make them a top priority for European funds.

Thus, the main goal of the program is to increase the economic development of the cities so as to decrease the economic disparities across regions. The program foresees how European and national funds will be spent.

Therefore, some 60% will go into infrastructure, 25% for social infrastructure development and 15% for the business development. Moreover, rehabilitation projects will be financed in order to improve the condition of old buildings and to prepare them for new social and economic activities.

Elsewhere in the news, Gandul reads about politicians who manage to obtain a doctorate degree without any problems. The newspaper reads that among those who benefit from their positions are the Health minister Eugen Nicolaescu, former Bucharest prefect Mioara Mantale or Social Democratic vice-president Cristian Diaconescu.

Even though on different political teams, Nicolaescu received his doctorate degree from the same institution and the same year with Cristian Diaconescu. And there are plenty of politicians who took advantage of their influential position to secure a degree.

However, Education Ministry officials declare that the process will become more transparent. Experts are currently working out a new regulation to be enforced according to which all thesis will be made public.

Last but not least, Romanian farmers take full advantage of the global warming effect that hit Romania in the last couple of years, Romania libera reads. Farmers in the South and South West have every shot of having new crops of bananas, almonds, dates, kiwi or other exotic fruits.

These can now be cultivated in Romania due to the new temperate-continental climate. The newspaper adds that Romanian experts launched, 13 years ago a challenging project to create the right environment for exotic fruits.

Today, the project can be considered a success as the farm of the Bucharest Agriculture University is full of bloomed exotic fruits. Experts declared that by natural selection, they managed to gather their first crops of bananas, kiwi or dates.

An exceptional fruit is the kiwi with a very small fruit that’s very appreciated in the world. The plant seems to have made it during the winter. At its turn, the Northern banana, from the US is bigger than those imported.