Transport, Telecommunications, Mass-Media

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

The Carpathian Mountains are crossed by scores of railways. The general orientation of the lines is determined by the Capital, which lies in the South-East of the country, as the main routes converge on it. Bucharest is Romania’s foremost railway node, with 8 main lines leaving from here, most of which are connected to international routes. Romania manufactures all kinds of railway cars as well as electric and Diesel-electric engines.

To the railway and river network we can add the road network. Public roads in Romania sum up 198,589 km, among which 114 km of highway, 14,696 km of national roads, 36,010 km of county roads, 27,781km of communal roads, 22, 328 km of streets in towns and 97,660 km of streets in rural localities. Like in the railway system, the capital of Romania remains the major road cross.

River navigation is practiced on most of the Danube. Ships with a draught exceeding 7 m. can navigate on the maritime Danube downstream from Braila.

Upstream from Braila there navigate ships with a smaller deadweight and a draught of up to 2-2.5 m.

The Danube-Black Sea Canal and the commissioning of the Danube-Main-Rhine Canal contributed to the creation of a waterway of European importance that connects the North Sea to the Black Sea.

Maritime navigation mostly involves big-deadweight ships. Sixty percent of this country’s imports and exports pass the port of Constanta. Romania has big shipyards.

Traian Vuia was the first in the world to take off, in 1906, with an airplane propelled exclusively by the force of its engine. In 1910, in Paris, Henri Coanda presented the world’s first jet plane. The first airplane ever to have metallic elements in its structure and a two-seat cockpit was built in 1911 by Aurel Vlaicu. Moreover, Romanian priorities also exist in the field of hydroplanes and helicopters.

The internal airlines connect the Capital to Craiova, Timisoara, Arad, Oradea, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Satu Mare, Baia Mare, Targu Mures, Bacau, Iasi, Suceava, Tulcea, Caransebes and Constanta. Several international lines connect Bucharest to Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Vienna, Frankfurt, Brussels, London, Moscow, New York, as well as to Rome, Sofia, Athens, Istanbul, Beirut, Tunis, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Cairo, etc.

The Romanian air fleet has received, in the last years, two Airbus 310-325 planes and 10 Boeing 737 planes. These will soon be joined by several Boeing 737 700 series and ATR 42-500 planes.

The concept of the European Union in what regards the makeup of the public road network has been taken over in this country too, and within this line mention should be made of the network of European corridors, three of which cross Romania.

Works are undertaken to modernize the national roads open to international traffic, with a total length of about 2,150 km. Railways will enable the circulation of high-speed trains. Several pan-European corridors will cross the territory of Romania: the Danube connected to the Rhine-Maine-Danube Channel, the rail superways, the highway to the west and the Bucharest-Chisinau-Kiev highway.

New railway car will be supplied, built according to European quality and reliability standards, including under license, produced by Astra SA Arad.

Telephone Services

The telecommunications in Romania started to operate over 100 years ago. The first interurban telegraphic line was set up in 1854. As early as 1884 there existed, in some localities, telephones and even telephone lines up to 10 km long. As a matter of fact, it was a Romanian, Augustin Maior, who invented multiple telephony, which led to the spreading of Bell’s invention.

The first regulation in the field, the Special Law of Telephone Operation, was passed in 1892, and after 17 years, in 1899, the Palace of the Post and Telegraph was inaugurated, one of the most beautiful building in Bucharest.

The lack of investments, particularly after 1980, caused the telecommunications activity to drop to a hardly enviable place: the last but one in Europe in point of telephone sets per hundred population. After 1989, the post and telecommunications system has been restructured, the basis being laid for its re-equipment and updating.

After 1991, the operational functions of the unitary telecommunication system were separated, and RomTelecom was set up as national operator in the field of telecommunications.

Its main activities include the administration, development and operation of the telephone-telegraph services for domestic and foreign end-users, meeting the requirements of the public, social and defence interests.

In December 1998, OTE of Greece purchased 35 percent of the ROMTELECOM shares. Alongside OTE there also came GTE from the United States, with 30 experts in executive and operational management at central level.

In preparing the complete liberalization of the sector, in 2003 ROMTELECOM is becoming more and more customer-oriented and is bent on high-quality service and world-standard financial performance. ISDN services are already available. Other new services (data, Internet) will be introduced soon.

Romanian Post

The post system was first attested in Romania in the 13th century.

The year 1858 represents an important date in the evolution of the post. It was then that the first Romanian post marks were introduced, deemed the oldest in the world. It is the series Aurochs’ Head that makes for a few peerless pieces of philatelic collection.

At present, the Romanian Post is a national company, an important component of the communication system.

The Romanian Post adheres to the concept of the European Commission referring to a new unitary market of post services, presented in The Green Book, which implies a unique tariff at the level of the Community and creates equal conditions for the same category of services.

At present, the Romanian National Post Company SA has a powerful post network with 5604 commercial post offices; 3110 distribution post offices; 7930 rural post offices; nearly 27,000 post boxes.

The transport of post envoys is done by post transportation, the car pool including about 1000 vehicles.

Through the Romanian national Company SA the population can benefit by rapid post services: Ultrapost and Prioripost for envoys at national level and Express Mail service for deliveries to other countries of the world.

Starting in 2001, the Romanian Post launched the Pioripost-Invoice services by which the sender can send copies of invoices issued that can be returned by the addressee after signing them, in conformity with the legislation in force.

Despite the facilities, the Romanian Post National Company SA grants discounts to the services Postmessenger, Postmessenger Plus and Infadres, function of the volume of deliveries.

The issues of post stamps are another major concern of the Romanian Post. Each year there are about 25 issues of 8-10 stamps as well as several perforated strips. The system of subscription was encouraged for the purchase of Romanian post marks, with lower tariffs for collective subscriptions of stamp associations and clubs. Numerous contracts were concluded with the private economic agents operating on this market. The Romanian Post is an active presence at the national and international stamp events.

Mass Media

In today’s Romania, the mass media have been undergoing a spectacular diversification as compared to the period before 1990, when information was censored, filtered and controlled. A few central newspapers, which printed exactly the same news, were completed by small country gazettes that usually provided a short resum� of the central news.

After 1990, beside the National Press Agency, ROMPRES, private press agencies emerged such as Mediafax, AR Press, and AM Press.

As regards the radio and television stations, they have diversified and grown in number. Beside the National Radio Company (which features five new stations broadcasting domestic and foreign news) and the National Television Company (with two channels and territorial studios in the cities of Iasi, Cluj and Timisoara), private radio stations have been set up (Radio Contact, Delta, Romantic, Uniplus, Total, Tinerama etc.) as well as private television stations (PRO TV, Antena 1, PRIMA TV, Tele 7abc, along with numerous cable and satellite television companies.

Source: MIP