Harnessing Tangible and Intangible Assets in the context of European Integration and Globalization: Challenges ahead

Luminița Chivu

ESPERA is also an opportunity to test the relevance and topicality of the subjects approached, and we invite our Romanian and foreign partners to join our debate and develop new joint projects.

The Scientific Committee, the scientific coordinators and reviewers working in the 14 workshops have made substantive effort to have this annual test happen, and I cannot thank them enough for this.

This event is drawing its roots from the academic propensity of our research institutes and centers, and we must express our gratitude for the scientific fervor and freedom inspired to us by the Romanian Academy, the highest national forum of sciences, under the wing of which we have conducted our activities for more than 30 years now.

Most Esteemed Audience,

ESPERA is also an opportunity for us to cast a retrospective glance at the fruits yielded by the economic research work in the institutes and centers of our Academy in the time between the past two editions.

At the previous edition of ESPERA, at the plenary session held on 24 May 2018, Professor Aurel Iancu, Member of the Romanian Academy (MRA), in his capacity as main coordinator, introduced to us the structure of the two volumes of “Romania’s Economy after the Great Union of 1918” (Vol. I – Macroeconomy, and Vol. II – Sectoral Economy), which forms part of the “Romanian Civilization,” a collection of works among which some of the books were, at that date, still being written by a large number of contributors: academy members, science researchers, professors, and authors that have gained an undeniable prestige in their fields of research.

This volume contains retrospective studies based on the diachronic approach of specific areas (demographics, natural resources, urbanization, progress of production factors, scientific research and development), inter-stage sectoral studies (agriculture, manufacturing, energy, etc.), as well as other aspects of the administrative and land management policies, industrial architecture, environmental protection, and the role of the Romanian Academy in strengthening the people’s awareness of their national unity.

Starting from 2018, INCE researchers have brought a substantive contribution to the Romanian Academy’s priority project: “Romania’s Economic and Monetary Convergence with the European Union. A Necessary Step.” The study is being coordinated by Professor Ioan Aurel Pop, MRA and president of the Romanian Academy (Slide 5).

INCE, through its Institute for World Economy (Institutul de Economie Mondială – IEM), acted as a coordinator of the convergence studies. The first stage of these studies had as a purpose the evaluation of the Romanian economy’s preparedness to convert to the euro currency. A large number of INCE researchers have contributed to it, through INCE’s Institute for World Economy, Economic Forecast Institute, National Economy Institute, Research Institute for the Quality of Life (ICCV), Institute of Agrarian Economy (IEA), Centre for Research in the Economics of Industry and Services (CEIS), the Centre of Financial and Monetary Research “Victor Slăvescu” (CCFM), and the Centre of Demographic Research (CCD).

INCE researchers have had significant contributions to the drafting of national strategies.

Among these were their participation in:

As a complement to these, comes our researchers’ contribution as coordinators or members of the Council for Economic Planning, the National Statistic Council, The Labor Committee of the Romanian Parliament, the Working Group for the Business Environment, Competitiveness, and Research-Development-Innovation set up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out the Plan of Action of the 2018 National Reform Program (NRP), and the 2018 Specific Country Recommendations (SCR), and in the Committee for Environment, Climatic Change, and Energy of the European Committee of the Regions, Brussels.

It was also 2019 that saw the launch of the series of scientific debates under the umbrella of the Academy’s Section for Economic, Juridical, and Sociological Sciences, in cooperation with INCE’s network of research institutes and centers.

The book, which I strongly recommend, was written for academics and students of economic schools, but also for Academy researchers and business people, for decision makers in any society, for all researchers that choose to follow the difficult road towards rethinking the fundamentals of economic science.

The publication in Romania of this book is a remarkable event that has been coordinated, with his well-known punctiliousness and scientific rigor, by Professor George Georgescu, and thanks to the contribution and keenness of Professor Valeriu Ioan Franc, who, in cooperation with Mr. Mircea Fâță, the translator, and Ms. Paula Neacșu, the editor, have produced an exemplary version of Professor John Komlos’ book in the Romanian language.

The term of the 3 projects is three years, during which, in an integrated system bringing together champion farmers and facilitators, a number of 6,000 farmers, 980 representatives of the Agency for Finance to Rural Investment (AFIR) and the Agency for Disbursements and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA), as well as representatives of local administrative bodies, will be trained in the regulations of the Code of Good Agricultural Practice (COGAP), to prevent and reduce the risk of soil pollution with nitrogen fertilizers.

Among other benefits, the three projects will create a network for the transfer and exchange of agricultural knowledge in the entire country, will enable the collection of data on the farmers’ feedback, thereby providing decision makers an instrument to identify the problems encountered by farmers, and prepare Romanian agriculture for the new CAP.

Until 30 September 2019, approximately 3,000 farmers and representatives of the public entities involved had been trained.

While in January 2015 INCE held the 380th position in the same classification, by mid-2019 INCE had leaped up 140 notches in only four years, which is a remarkable achievement of the entire research network, in the face of the sharp international competition in the field. First in this hierarchy are the Department of Economics, Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; World Bank Group; Economics Department, MIT; London School of Economics.

Dear Audience,

In the time between its editions, the ESPERA Conference has increasingly acted as a platform of scientific dialogue and exchange of opinions, and we plan to further establish connections between researchers, academics, experts with hands-on experience in the real economy, and members of the civil society, all of whom can contribute to identify the sensitive issues that claim intensive research work for the benefit of the Romanian economy and the society at large.

While, at the beginnings of economic science, the economic perspective of intangible assets was that they “had no price,” and therefore they were not duly quantified as production factors capable to generate richness, now they seem to have become “priceless” in the balance of a country’s national wealth, and are quoted in economic writings as the fourth production factor.

Although there are numerous analyses of this concept in the dedicated literature, the incomplete statistic information, and the delay with which such information becomes available are an impairment precluding us to issue opinions regarding the current value of Romania’s tangible and intangible assets, and the contribution of each such asset to the creation of national wealth in Romania.

In the Romanian dedicated literature, a prominent place is held by the book written by Professor Victor Axenciuc, OMRA: “The National Wealth of Romania, 1860–1939: A Comparative Historical Research,” that saw print at the Expert Publishing House, in 2000.

Even though the price of farm land is still among the lowest in the EU, Romania positioned 5th in respect of its average natural capital per capita, 10th in respect of the net foreign assets, but 24th for the produced capital, and 25th for the average human capital per capita.

The produced capital has undergone deep changes in point of structure and incorporated technology, bearing the strong mark of the industrial revolutions, deindustrialization, digitalization, and robotisation of the past three decades.

Romania has lost, in the past 20 years, numerous industrial structures, manufacturing shops, facilities, equipment, that were pulled down and turned into scrap iron, after they had previously served for scale production processes. Other industrial facilities were created, in line with the new technologies.

Over the double decade 1998–2017, Romania manufactured 91.2 mil. tones of plain steel, and exported 33.8 mil. tones of scrap iron. In the year when the world economic and financial crisis made its debut, the two indicators were very close.

With regard to its human capital, Romania has reached the 30th year of demographic decline.

Professor Vasile Ghețău’s estimation is that, in the time frame 1990–2018, the natural loss of population exceeded 1 mil. inhabitants. The net migration balance during the same period is estimated by official statistics to stand at 2.6 mil. persons.

The labor market, therefore, suffers from imbalances caused by labor deficits, both in quantity and quality. INCE and KPMG researchers, commissioned by the Concordia Employers Confederation, conducted a study, published in March 2019, on the quantitative side of the shortage of labor. Their estimations indicated that the labor deficit stood at over 550 thou’ persons, and was likely to grow to approximately 950 thou’ persons in the next 4 years. All while there is a significant segment of unused labor.

The above estimations did not take into account the contribution to the growth of the added value that the NEETs could bring if they were in employment.

We have chosen only a few criteria to illustrate the important role the tangible and intangible assets of a country can play in the creation of national wealth, if they are wisely harnessed to do so.

Distinguished Audience,

We are glad to see that this sixth edition of the ESPERA Conference is attended by many more scientific researchers and academics, and this is an encouragement for us to broaden our cooperation with the universities.

Present at this edition, for the second consecutive year, is the Association of Economic Faculties of Romania (Asociația Facultăților Economice din România – AFER), and we wish to express our gratitude to Rector Nicolae Istudor, who is honoring us with his presence today, and who has been supportive in our endeavor to forge closer ties and open new windows of cooperation with the researchers in universities.

This is an opportunity for me to thank our guests from Romania and abroad for the interest shown in our Conference. I must confess that we are impressed by the scholarly and complex level of the papers contributed to the Conference.

We also wish to welcome the presence here of the Chairman of the Romanian Academy’s Department of Economic, Juridical, and Sociological Sciences, Mr. Mugur Constantin Isărescu, MRA, to whom we take this opportunity to thank for the poise and tactfulness with which he has always guided and coordinated the scientific activity of the Romanian Academy’s Institutes and Centers involved in economic and social studies.

This is the second edition in which the European Academy for Business Management and Economics (Academia Europea de Direccion y Economia de Empresa – AEDEM), Spain, has joined us as our partner. We wish to express our special thanks to the Honorable Gil Jaime Aluja, Member and President of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences (Real Academia de Ciencias Economicas e Financieras – RACEF), and the Spanish Institute. Professor Gil Jaime Aluja will kindly share with us today his personal contribution to the new theory of self-induced incidence.

We greatly thank the distinguished Ms. Erna Hennicot Schoepges for her participation, a champion of cultural diplomacy, a warm friend of our Institute, of the Romanian Academy, and of Romania.

We also owe our gratitude to the eminent neurologist Honorable Jean Jacques Askenasy, of the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, for his presence here today, and I am looking forward with tremendous expectation to hear his presentation on the economic triangle of the brain.

Side by side with our traditional partners, the National Bank of Romania, the Centre for Economic Information and Documentation, and our brotherly Moldovan Academy of Economic Studies (and our thanks go to Professor Cornel Guțu, its Pro-rector, who is honoring us in person, bringing us a beautiful message from Chișinău), we also have the pleasure to welcome to this year’s edition of ESPERA the Romanian National Committee –the World Energy Council and The West University, Timișoara (represented by Professor Dogaru)

Our international partners are still with us at this 6th edition: Research Network on Resources Economics and Bioeconomy Association, Gestion y Planificacion Research Group (GESPLAN, Spain), Institute of Agricultural Economics (Belgrade, Serbia), Institute of Economic Sciences (Belgrade, Serbia), Faculty of Social and Cultural Service and Tourism, Stavropol State Agrarian University (Russia), Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, “St. Kliment Ohridski” University (Sofia, Bulgaria) and Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism, University of Kragujevac (Serbia). Special thanks for their support and our fruitful collaboration.

All the papers to be presented here will be as many contributions to the growth of the value of Romania’s intangible assets.

Our special thanks go to the two deputy directors general of INCE, Professor Valeriu Ioan Franc, and Professor George Georgescu.

I wish to thank to a small but enthusiastic team of people who made this event possible: Carmen Gheorghe, Laura Anghel, Alina Rădoi, Nicolae and Luminița Login, Ovidiu Sârbu, and Mircea Fâță.

Allow me to express our gratitude to all the today’s participants in the ESPERA session, and to all those who contributed scientific papers to the Conference, because, without you all, our effort would be pointless and our enterprise would not reach its purpose.

The number of papers proposed for presentation at the Conference has grown every year. For this edition, we have received over 250 papers, authored by more than 500 contributors, 50 of them being colleagues from abroad.

We are glad that ESPERA, and the publication by Peter Lang Academic Publishing Group, give prominence to our ideas, help us make them known and acknowledged in the international arena for debates, and enhance the visibility of the Romanian scientific research under the aegis of the Romanian Academy. All the contributions become pages in the Thesaurus Book of INCE, of which Professor Valeriu Ioan Franc speaks so proudly, and of which he has been taking care of, unabatedly, since the foundation of INCE.

And, in this context, I would like to congratulate Professor Valeriu Ioan Franc for his admission this year as Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy, and to wish him, as well as Professor Cătălin Zamfir, a full Member of the Romanian Academy, and Professor Radu Rey, an Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, the success and accomplishment they deserve – because they are among the most prominent intangible assets of our Institute.

Last, but not least, heartfelt thanks to the other persons invited to our Conference, who could not participate, but who have sent messages of encouragement and support, and demonstrated, once more, that a scientific event of this amplitude was necessary and worth having.

My opening speech ends with our best wishes of success to our Conference.

Valeriu Ioan-Franc, Napoleon Pop