Country Overview
Romania’s regulatory framework and permit system generally support the creation of new businesses and provide robust protections for investors. Combined with a stable financial system, this environment helps encourage new infrastructure investment and promotes competition between suppliers. Despite a modest increase in infrastructure investment from InfraCompass 2017, Romania lacks adequate project planning. The introduction of a national infrastructure plan and the implementing of post-completion reviews could help improve the efficiency of investment and deliver better quality outcomes.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
14,795 USD
Population
19.2 million persons
Infrastructure quality
71.7 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment
4.0% of GDP
Infrastructure gap
0.2% of GDP

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

65
3
39.5
Emerging
26
1
63.9
Top performer
38
7
71.6
Contender
57
2
50.4
Aspiring
44
10
73.2
Contender
63
22
20.6
Aspiring
37
1
37.7
Contender
72
2
19.2
Emerging

Metric Overview

Strengths

Cost to start a business

The cost of starting a business in Romania is 0.3% of income per capita, far below the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 11%, easing the entry of new firms..

Registering property

In Romania it takes 14.5 days to register a property, well below the 22 day Upper Middle Income Countries’ average. As infrastructure projects often involve some transfer of property rights, an efficient registration process reduces project cost and risk.

Financial stability

According to the World Economic Forum, Romania has high financial stability, although the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown. A stable financial system facilitates the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure and investors, improving capital supply for projects.

Cost to start a business

The cost of starting a business in Romania is 0.3% of income per capita, far below the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 11%, easing the entry of new firms..

Registering property

In Romania it takes 14.5 days to register a property, well below the 22 day Upper Middle Income Countries’ average. As infrastructure projects often involve some transfer of property rights, an efficient registration process reduces project cost and risk.

Financial stability

According to the World Economic Forum, Romania has high financial stability, although the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown. A stable financial system facilitates the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure and investors, improving capital supply for projects.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

Upper-middle income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Published infrastructure plan

Romania does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in Romania. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Post-completion reviews

Romania does not undertake post-completion reviews for infrastructure projects. The implementation of post-completion reviews could help determine whether projects have achieved their objectives efficiently, and identify areas for improvement.

Published infrastructure plan

Romania does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

According to the World Bank, there is no formal requirement for a market sounding process in Romania. Adding one could allow the government to determine if there is an interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Post-completion reviews

Romania does not undertake post-completion reviews for infrastructure projects. The implementation of post-completion reviews could help determine whether projects have achieved their objectives efficiently, and identify areas for improvement.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

Upper-middle income country average

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Romania

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

34.4
37.7

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

56.5 (-0.7)
45.1

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

No
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

43.3
40.2

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

51.0 (-3.6)
46.1

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Romania

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

34.4
37.7
56.5 (-0.7)
45.1
No
-
43.3
40.2
51.0 (-3.6)
46.1
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Romania’s regulatory framework and permit system generally support the creation of new businesses and provide robust protections for investors. Combined with a stable financial system, this environment helps encourage new infrastructure investment and promotes competition between suppliers. Despite a modest increase in infrastructure investment from InfraCompass 2017, Romania lacks adequate project planning. The introduction of a national infrastructure plan and the implementing of post-completion reviews could help improve the efficiency of investment and deliver better quality outcomes.
GDP per capita

14,795 USD

Population

19.2 million persons

Infrastructure quality

71.7 (0-100 best)

Infrastructure investment

4.0% of GDP

Infrastructure gap

0.2% of GDP

GDP

243.7 USD billion

GDP growth rate

4.0%

GDP per capita growth rate

1.7%

Gini coefficient

35.9 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

37.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

4.2%

Summary credit rating

55.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

4.2%

Urbanisation ratio

54.0% of total population

Road connectivity

79.3 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

3.0 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

2.8 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

4.6 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

3.9 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

11.9% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

8.5% of population

Reliability of water supply

5.2 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.6 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

88.0 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

26.1 per 100 population