Labels:text | font | screenshot | black and white | paper | document OCR: Strengths Large number of foreign joint ventures. Tourism potential. Weaknesses Slow transition from centrally planned to market economy. Delays in implementing economic reform. Low foreign investment levels. Large bureaucracy. Profile Few economic reforms have been undertaken in Romania compared with other former communist Eastern European states. While all have suffered from recession in the reform process, Romania's has been the most severe, and there appears to be little prospect of improvement in the near future. Pressure for reform is strongest in the chemical, petrochemical, metal, transportation and food industries. Only a small minority is doing well economically. Real wages have also fallen since the change of regime, and are continuing to do so. Farming began to be privatized in 1989 and by 1994, 80% of farmland was in private hands. It remains severely undermechanized. Agricultural processing is still under state control, and output levels have fallen, notably in meat products. Romania was the first Eastern European country to open its economy to foreign investment, allowing 100% foreign ownership from 1990. The number of joint ventures - 21,000 - is the highest in Eastern Europe, but most are small-scale. Foreign investment is hindered by bureaucracy and doubts about the country's stability. However, both imports and exports rose in 1993. The EU is now Romania's main trading partner.
