Mugur Isărescu: Financing investment projects in the Danube region
Speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the
3rd Danube Financing Dialogue, Bucharest, 30 October 2013.
* * *
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased and honored to welcome you at the National Bank of Romania. Allow me thank
the organizers for giving me the opportunity to open the 3rd Danube Financing Dialogue.
Time has come for Bucharest to host this important event, after Vienna and Belgrade. The
place has changed, but the venue remained the central bank, the agenda and the
conference framework being quite the same. This gathering enables both European and
local financing institutions and small and medium enterprises from the Danube Region to
reach a common language in order to find the most suitable solutions to specific projects.
This conference, like the two others that preceded it, would like to put an emphasis on
Danube's enormous potential for doing business.
•
Danube rises in the Black Forest mountains of western Germany and flows for
2,857 km to its mouth on the Black Sea. Danube is Europe's only major river,
flowing west to east, from Central to Eastern Europe and having its basin roughly
twice the size of California.
• In addition to the 83 million people that live in the river basin, Danube is home to
47 cities and 10 countries, passing through 4 national capitals (Vienna, Bratislava,
Budapest and Belgrade) and 20 cities only in Romania,
•
There are 120 tributaries that drain 805,000 square kilometers of basin into the
Danube river, the most prominent and fully navigable being Inn, Drava, Morava,
Tisa, Sava and Prut rivers.
•
Danube played a vital role in the settlement and political evolution of central and
southeastern Europe. Its banks, lined with castles and fortresses, formed the
boundary between great empires, and its waters served as a vital commercial
highway between nations.
•
The river's majesty has long been celebrated in music, poetry, painting and other
forms of art. It inspired famous artists such as the Strauss family, the Danube
School of painters, Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, etc.
The Danube Delta includes exceptional habitats and globally important species of flora and
fauna (including the white pelican and the Beluga sturgeon). It has been explored by many
scientists. Perhaps, the most complete survey of the river was carried out by Captain
Jacques Cousteau and a team of forty European researchers and experts, from 1990 to
1992. They investigated the problems linked to energy, pollution, navigation and the
protection of natural areas. The outcome was a large amount of conclusions that were
distributed to over a thousand scientists, decision-makers and journalists. It had specific
recommendations for each country involved.
It was for the first time when such a complete vision of the Danube was unveiled.
All these facts constitute reasons that lead the European Commission to recognize the
importance of Danube as being "the single most important non-oceanic body of water in
Europe" and "a future central axis for the European Union". But there still remains a major
issue regarding this subject -the Danube basin is still not used to its full potential. Its
remarkable business prospective is yet to be taken advantage of in terms of agriculture,
energy sources, wastewater disposal, industrial or even recreational purposes. This massive
potential alone is not enough to implement a business plan; it certainly needs vision and
funding. And financing is exactly the main issue upon which the today conference focuses.
For instance, one could take inspiration in the Rhine basin management project which turned
the Rhine into Europe's most densely navigated shipping route. It connects world's largest
seaport, Rotterdam, with world's largest inland port, Duisburg, although the Rhine's length is
less than a half of Danube's.
And while large sections of the Upper Danube in Germany and Austria have been regulated,
the areas of the lower and middle Danube were not. I strongly believe that middle and lower
Danube and the Danube Delta offer a great business potential for investment projects. To
refer only to big projects some have been finalized, as it is the case of the Danube-Black Sea
Canal, which runs from Cernavodă, on the Danube, to Constanţa (southern arm, as main
branch), and to Năvodari (northern arm), on the Black Sea. Other big projects are still in
progress, such as the Danube-Bucharest Canal, a 73-kilometre long canal project that is
planned to link Bucharest to the Danube via Argeş River. Thus, at the completion of this
project Danube could become home for five capitals, including Bucharest.
This conference has two main objectives. One is to bring together Romanian financial sector
representatives and project initiators; the other one is to find appropriate financial
instruments to better highlight the remarkable business potential of the lower Danube basin.
I do hope this conference is going to offer you all the opportunity for successful networking
and may you find appropriate solutions for vital issues regarding the agenda.
I desire you all success with the materialization and accomplishment of your present and
future projects and I conclude by wishing all the foreign guests at this conference a good stay
in Romania.
I am now giving the floor to Mr Kurt Puchinger, Coordinator of the EU Strategy for the
Danube Region and chair of the first session, to start the conference.
Thank you.