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RBT: Some officials in the Transport Ministry think that port operators should invest their own money in infrastructure. Do you think the same?
Laurentiu Mironescu: Laws are still unclear because port’s land is owned by the state, leased to the port’s administration and then rented to the operators. In these conditions, operators’ willingness to invest their money on some piece of land they don’t own is very unlikely. It would be best if the state would amend the leasing law in order to switch the land in ports into administration’s ownership. This way, investors might be attracted with longer term plans.
RBT: EU promotes a faster development for inland waterway transport than road transport, while Romania has ambitious plans for motorways, but few concrete initiatives aimed to ameliorate navigation on the Danube. Is it possible to align the local strategy to European objectives?
L.M.: I’m involved in this because transport was always my speciality and I tried to change something. But, no matter how many signals, they had no effect. In the end, Danube’s navigable potential must be clearly recognised. We’re now in an embarassing situation: no matter how long the Danube is, the river isn’t valuable because it is hardly navigable. And things can’t be changed as they go. We need a governmental strategy because a river becomes profitable from 400 km upwards. Danube must be navigable economically, but it also has to be a distribution center. A long time ago I’ve launched a container terminal project at Drobeta Turnu Severin. It’s a perfect place for such a terminal, because Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria can be attracted. But to do something like this, you have to see further than five meters. There are things tha could have been made and it’s sad to see things unchanged. And the strategy used by previous governments – politics prevailing on economics – won’t get us something good in the near future.
