Location and resources

 

 Romania is situated in the Southeastern part of Central Europe, in the Northern part of Balkan Peninsula, inside and outside of the Carpathians Mountains, on the Danube lower course, bordering the Black Sea.

Romania borders on Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the north and northeast, on Bulgaria to the south, on Serbia to the southwest, and on Hungary to the northwest. The Black Sea coast is its eastern border. The Danube River runs along Romania's southern border for 1,075 km, and eventually forms the Danube Delta before flowing into the Black Sea.

 

Area: 238,391 square kilometers (91,780 square miles). Romania is the second largest country in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

Climate: temperate-continental, four seasons

Natural resources:  Romania’s mineral resources are various. Among the main useful minerals resources it can be mentioned: crude oil, with old exploitation traditions; natural gas; coal; especially coking pit coal, brown coal and lignite; ferrous and nonferrous ores, gold, silver and bauxite ore deposits; vast reserves of salt and numerous nonmetalliferrous resources. A special category of subsoil riches is constituted by over 2000 mineral water springs, with consumption and medical treatments valences.

           A very important wealth of Romania is its natural beauty. The visitors can enjoy the marvelous panorama formed by the natural conjunction between the affronted mountains, charming hills, forests, volcanic and artificial lakes, rivers, the sea shore and the Danube River Delta. Most of the wonderful landscape are still unknown by the foreign tourists.

 

Population

 

Population: 22,303,552 (july 2006, source: National Statistics Institute)
Age structure:   0 - 14 years: 15.7% (male 1,799,072/female 1,708,030)

                          15 - 64 years: 69.6 %(male 7,724,368/female 7,797,065)

                          65 years and over: 14.7% (male 1,347,392/female 1,927,625)

Population density: 95.2 inhabitants per square km.

Ethnic groups: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian  0.3%, German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4%.

Religion: Eastern Orthodox 86.8%, Protestant (including Reformat and Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%, other (mostly Muslim) 0,9%.

Education: Romania possesses an important labor potential with a proper qualification level.

The reform of education and professional training offers large perspective regarding the aligning the professional competence of Romanian labor force to the European standards in the field.

 

State Organization

Official name: ROMANIA

Capital: BUCHAREST (228 sq. km; 1,927,559 inhabitants in July 2004), organized into six administrative sectors.

Form of government: Romania is a republic with parliamentary democracy, according to the Constitution adopted in 1991 and modified in 2003. The President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and can be reelected only once. The President represents the Romanian state, watches over the activity of the public authorities, fulfils the offices of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Country’s Supreme Defense Council. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and appoints the Government on the basis of the confidence vote received from the Parliament. In Romania, the Constitution sets out the separation of the three public authorities: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.

Legislative power: Bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate -137 seats; members are elected by direct and popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year term; and the Chamber of Deputies – 332 seats; members are elected by direct and popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year term.

It’s the people’s supreme representative body and sole law-making authority.

 Executive power: The Government ensures the implementation of the country's domestic and foreign polices and provides general management of public administration. Public administration in the territorial administrative units is based on the principles of local autonomy and decentralization of public services. Mayors and local councilors, elected by direct vote, are the public administration authorities in communes and towns. The county council is the public administration authority that co-ordinates the activities of all commune and town councils in each county. The Government appoints a "prefect" (governor) at the head of each county and of the Bucharest Municipality.

Juridical power: Supreme Court of Justice-judges are appointed by the President on the recommandation of the Superior Council of Magistrates, a board of eleven judges and six prosecutors elected by the Parliament.

The judicial power comprises the low courts, the Public Ministery and the Higher Council of Magistracy. The judiciary is made up of the Supreme Court of Justice, the country courts, other courts and military tribunals.

National flag: Three equal vertical stripes-next to the staff-blue, yellow and red.

National Coat-of-Arms: An eagle holding a cross in its beak and a sword and a scepter in its claws as well as the symbols of the five historical provinces-Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Banat and Dobrudja.

 National Day: 1^st of December-Unification Day ( of Romania and Transylvania on 1 December 1918).

 Administration: The country is divided into 41 counties (districts) and Bucharest municipality, 276 cites of which 103 are municipalities, 2,727 communes (with 13,042 villages).

  Main cities: Iasi (313,444), Constantza (309,965), Cluj-Napoca (294,906), Galati (300,211), Timisoara (308,019), Brasov (286,371), Craiova (300,843), Ploiesti (236,724)  and Braila (221,369).

 

Infrastructure and Transportation

Located in the center of Europe, Romania contributes to the achievement of international economic exchanges between West and East, North and South of the continent, between Europe and Middle East.

Railways network: Romania National Railway is the fourth largest railway in Europe in terms of total line lenght and traffic volume, covering the entire Romanian territory  with 11,385 km of public infrastructure.In Romania 45% of the rail network is electrified, and there are two important trans-European corridors passing through.

 International Airports: in Bucharest („Henry Coanda”-Otopeni), Constantza („Mihail Kogalniceanu”), Timisoara („Traian Vuia”).

Domestic Airports: in  Bucharest, Arad, Bacau, Baia Mare, Caransebes, Cluj-Napoca, Constantza, Deva, Iasi, Oradea, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava, Timisoara, Targu Mures and Tulcea.

Public roads network: counts over 198,755 km of which 100,173 km are paved with 17,000 modernized roads and 98,582 km unpaved. Romania has also 113 km of expressways.

The traffic keeps to the right, doubling on the left side. Traffic signs are those generally acepted on international level.

Ports:

- at the Black Sea: along the Romanian Black Sea shore, long of 244 km are three ports located in Constantza, Mangalia and Midia. Constantza Harbour, is the most important port to the Black Sea and the second one in Europe.

- at the Danube River: along the 1075 km are located 13 ports, which offer conditions for connections between Romania and Western and Central European countries. The ports are located in: Braila, Galati and Tulcea, that can be used both by river and sea going ships, Moldova Noua, Orsova, Calafat, Corabia, Giurgiu, Oltenita, Cernavoda, Sulina.

The digging of the Danube-Black Sea Channel shortened the maritime way to Bosphorus and the Middle East by 400 km and the recent opening of the Danube-Rhine-Main Channel provides an easier access to Western European countries and the North Sea for ships with a capacity up to 1500 tons.

 

Other Useful Information

Time zone: Romania is two hours-ahead Greenwich Mean Time.

Business hours: Monday to Friday, usually from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Official holidays: January 1-2 (New year’s Day), first and second Easter Days, Decembre 1 (The National Day), Christmas Days (December 25, 26).

Official language: Romanian (belonging to the family of Latin languages).

 Foreign languages: French, English, German and Hungarian.

 Currency unit: Romanian LEU (RON), plural LEI. Domestic cash payments, compensations and credits, as well as other financial and capital deallings are made in national currency (RON).

 

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