The Romanian American Chamber of Commerce

South Romania is paralyzed by heavy snow and many national and local roads are closed, most newspapers read on Tuesday. In this vein, Transports minister Berceanu declares that all public money were spent on clearing roads in the winter and there will be no money left for road repairing in the summer. Elsewhere in the news, Romania's Defense ministry plans to declassify secret documents regarding the 1989 Revolution, after 20 years. Last but not least, one newspaper reveals that the government lied to impose a higher retirement age.

American company Bechtel plans to continue building Transilvania motorway if the necessary funds will be made available, Bechtel communication manager Bogdan Sgarcitu told HotNews.ro. According to him, the main impediment is the Romanian 2010 state budget, which did not insure that funds will be made available to resume the construction of the highway. For the 10 km from section 2B, between Turda and Campia Turzii, around 100 million euros will be necessary, while for the section 3C, namely 40 km between Suplacu de Barcau and Bors, the construction requires nearly 200 million euros. The works on section 2B are very likely to be carried out, but section 3C remains unaddressed. 

The European Commission (EC) proposed to the European Union Council to extend by one year (namely 2012) the deadline for Romania's endeavour to cut the budget deficit under 3% of the GDP, having in mind the unexpected effects of the recession, a communiqué of the European institution shows. At he same time, the EC appreciates that Romania has taken effective measures to correct the budget's unbalance.

Mehedinti - 14,5% (south-west), Vaslui 13,5% (east), Alba - 13,4% (central-west) are the Romanian counties with the highest unemployment rate, while Bucuresti (2,4%), Ilfov -2,6% (south) and Timis - 4,4% (west) record the lowest rate, a Romanian National Employment Agency (ANOFM) communiqué shows. 

A piece of news from an American newspaper, Des Moines Register, has attracted big interest online. The owner of a company that used to sell Chrysler found a solution to get him out of the crisis brought by the economic environment: he'll bring from Romania electric cars put together in this country - cars based on Dacia models. The news needs to be read with caution: the article talks about high selling prices, of up to 30,000 dollars, an unusual high autonomy - 400 km, and it does not mention who's the producer and where they are produced.