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Romania
Relevant information about Romania.The country is located in the Southern East region of Europe. It is an OTAN member since March 2004 and of the European Union since 2007. It is the seventh most populated country in Europe, and the ninth in land area.
Bucharest is one of the major tourist attractions, besides being the largest city and National Capital of Romania. The city of Sibiu was designated European Capital of Culture in 2007, together with Luxembourg. The Black Sea, the Danube Delta and the Carpathians are the natural attractions that focus on tourism, while in Transylvania highlighted their cultural heritage.
In 2006, Romania´s population reached the 22.3 million inhabitants. This population is decreasing 0.12% each year. The predominant ethnic are Romanians (89%), followed by a large Hungarian community (6.6%), Roma (2.5%), Ukrainians, Russians and Turks. The population is concentrated in the plains, which are industrial sites and develop agriculture. Only a 55% of Romanians live in cities, which represents one of the lowest proportions in Europe. Bucharest is the main city, over two million inhabitants live there. Romania has no official religion. Nevertheless, and according to 2002 census, over a 89% of the population declared themselves as Romanian Orthodox Church. There is also a significant number of Catholics (5.6%, both Latin and Eastern rite), Protestants (3.7%, both Calvinist and Lutherans) and there is also a minority of Muslims and Pentecostals (0.4%). Romanian is the official language. The next most important are Hungarian and Roma, spoken by this two ethnical groups. Spanish, French and English are very studied and popular languages. Romania's culture is rich and varied. As Romanians themselves, it is defined primarily as a meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, not to be included in any of them. The Romanian identity formed on a substrate Roman and Dacian, combined with other influences. During the Middle Ages, the Romanians were influenced by the Slavs, the Greeks and Ottoman Turks. Modern Romanian culture developed over roughly the past 250 years, with a strong Western influence, particularly French, German and Hungarian. Football is the most popular sport. In 1986, the Romanian soccer club Steaua BucureÅŸti became the first and only team of the communist bloc that won the European Champions Cup. The selection of Romania participated in the first three World Cups, and his best success was the quarterfinals in the United States in 1994. In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Nadia Romanian Comăneci became the first gymnast in history to get a "ten." Ilie Nastase, tennis player, became a star of world tennis in the 70s. He won several Grand Slam titles and dozens of other tournaments, also had success as a doubles player.
Immediately after World War II, Romanian economical resources were nationalized and the economical activities were highly planned. In 1989, with the fall of the Communist regime, the new government started with some series of reforms so to introduce in the country a Market economy. After several years of privatization and decentralization, Romanian government learned to be significantly less interventionist in the economy. Romania is one of the main producers and agricultural exporters of Europe. This sector represents up to the 10% of its GDP. Crops cover over a 40% of the national soil, forest resources are abundant and fishing is starting to expand. Natural gas and oil deposits provide a significant percentage of the daily consumption. In order to try to reduce the dependence of external factors (they have to import some gas and oil from Russia) Romania has prompted the generation of nuclear power plants and hydropower. Industrial sector represents the 35% of the GPD, although in recent times lots of factories (most of them developed in the planned economy era) came obsolete and had to invest heavily in modernization. Principal industries sectors are textiles, steel, machinery and vehicles production, weapons and processing of agricultural production. Services include the remaining 55% of the GPD, with tourism being the main contributor. Unemployment rate is of 6.4%, several points below the regional media.
Bucharest, Sibiu, Danube Delta, Iaşi, Braşov, Cluj-Napoca, Timişoara, Craiova, Constanza, Galaţi y Deva, Bucegi Mountains, Belvedere, Maramureş, Peleş.
Romania is an important tourist destination in Eastern Europe. They offer a wide range of health services and private clinics similar to that of developed countries with a high level specialist staff. Romania is well established as a destination for spa and wellness travel but opportunity exists to expand on this to become a destination for low cost, high quality medical services. Patients come from all Europe to receive the care of a highly competent specialists in well equipped clinics. Prices are very accessible and many people travels for dental treatment.
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