What the newspapers say: March 6, 2009

Businessman Dinu Patriciu seeks to support a Liberal candidate able to counter President Basescu at this year’s Presidential elections, one newspaper reads on Friday. Elsewhere in the news, a Finance ministry draft rules that products like porn magazines, telephones and GPS systems will be taxed. Last but not least, a World Bank report concludes that teachers should be better paid.

Businessman Dinu Patriciu plans to endorse a Liberal candidate in the upcoming Liberal Congress who will be able to compete with incumbent President Basescu at this year’s Presidential elections, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

Liberal Party president and ex Prime Minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu seems to have lost Patriciu’s support, the newspaper reads, in favor of Crin Antonescu. However, Antonescu denies any connection with Patriciu.

Sources declared for the newspaper that Patriciu’s main goal is to support a Liberal candidate who will be able to confront President Basescu. At the beginning of this year Patriciu spent a holiday with Tariceanu on his yacht and supposedly, Tariceanu accepted Patriciu’s support. However, Tariceanu seems to have changed his mind.

Liberal Bogdan Olteanu declared that Patriciu upholds Crin Antonescu at the Liberal Congress. However, Antonescu denied the information and declared that the businessman has nothing to do with the Congress.

On the business side, a Finance ministry working document rules the introduction of a VAT tax for products such as porn magazines, telephones or GPS devices, Gandul reads. In this vein, Prime Minister Emil Boc declared that this is a working document and no final decision was made.

The document reads that the executive plans to tax a new category of products: mobile phones, palms, iphones, pagers, watches, porn magazines, magnetic supports with adult content etc. The list, obtained by the daily Business Standard, includes even a supplementary tax for yachts or guns.

In a declaration for the newspaper, Social Democratic (PSD) leader Mircea Geoana declared that the ministry is working at a set of proposals but does not have the approval of the government or of the coalition. However, the newspaper reads that the document has every chance of being adopted, as there were other precedents following the same path.

Cotidianul reads about a World Bank report, set up at the government’s request that concludes that teachers should be better paid after the adoption of a series of measures aimed at reforming the system.

Thus, the report outlines some urgent measures: to correlate the number of teachers to the number of students, to reward professors based on their professional performance and to adapt the curricula to the needs of the market.

Analysts show that funding decreases in times of crises should not affect the education quality, and that decisions to cut funds should be taken strategically. World Bank experts note that the education of the population is a key priority in Romania considering that the financial crisis exposed its main weakness: lack of competition on the market.