Bucharest. Photo: Pixabay

The image of Romania as a country whose main export is its own people belies the fact that the country’s economy is racing ahead at rates most EU countries could only dream about, the UK Guardian wrote in a glowing tribute on Saturday.

The leading left-of-centre British broadsheet homed in on the fact that Romania’s growth rate in the second quarter of 2017 was approaching 6 per cent on the back of solid growth of 4.8 in 2016, far above the EU average and way above the UK.

The newspaper also singled out Romania’s fast growing IT sector, which it said was making Romania a magnet for European companies wanting to outsource work to countries with skilled but cheaper labour forces.

It quoted Shajjad Rizvi, director of the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce in the city of Cluj, as saying: “Romania is one of the choices they [global firms] are looking at.

“Software companies, a lot are doubling or tripling their workforces in Romania, and a lot of those jobs are coming from the UK. Whole departments: marketing, PR, HR; they are being closed down in the UK and moved out here.”

“Major global companies such as Siemens, Ford and Bosch have set up or expanded operations in Romania, boosting an economy that’s already growing at speed,” the newspaper continued, noting that Ford is also expanding its operations at its car plant in Craiova.

The newspaper conceded there were some drawbacks doing business in Romania, especially over corruption and poor communications. Both the highways and railways require substantial investment.