Topic:
Country: Romania
Delegate Name: RJ Langen
United Nations Development Programme
Income Inequality
Republic of Romania
RJ Langen
Forest Hills Northern High School
The Republic of Romania recognizes that we must address the problem of income inequality within our population if we are to improve the overall productivity of our country. In the past several years, our ability to prevent income in the top income earners of the population from rising too sharply was impeded by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, through our enactment of various laws and policies in conjunction with international assistance, we believe Romania is on the right path to correcting this problem.
Among the numerous Covid-19 fiscal measures implemented at the beginning of 2020, a few measures have proved very effective. The first law guaranteed 80-90% of state loans issued to companies. The second law provided 100% subsidized interest on investment loans to small businesses. These laws have led to a fast recovery of many small businesses and a decline in our unemployment rate from 6.81% in 2015 to 5.1% in 2022. Although this 5.1% unemployment rate number is higher than our pre-Covid low of 3.9% in 2019, we expect the unemployment rate to start going down again in early 2023 due to more fiscal stimulus measures like the one that paid out 3.18 billion euros for restarting companies. Overall, the results of the stimulus injections and financial investments have put Romania on the right path to economic recovery and to bouncing back stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic. Romania’s economy is expected to grow by a combined nine% from 2020 to the end of 2022.
We are also grateful that we have been able to access funding from our European Union National Recovery and Resilience Plan. This Plan has allowed us to enable greater investment in large and important sectors such as transportation and renewable energy. In conjunction with our fiscal efforts, this Plan allows Romania to provide opportunities for better education and more well-paying jobs to people residing in rural areas who may lack other financial opportunities. Many of Romania’s enacted policies correspond with agreements detailed in the United Nations Leaving No One Behind Agenda, which strives to make sure that everyone has a well-paying job and access to education.
We do still acknowledge that large gaps need to be filled when it comes to income inequality. Romania simply does not have the economic resources to prop up its public sector and deliver better services for our citizens without continued help from other countries. Therefore, we ask the European Union for continued financial aid for our National Recovery and Resilience Plan and for more funding to be reserved to help Eastern European countries develop their economies.
