Officials from the Netherlands, the US, Italy, Switzerland and Great Britain Chamber of Commerce in Romania, as well as representatives of the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) addressed an open letter to the Romanian authorities on Tuesday, underlining the unresolved compulsory private pensions system (pier II) issues, and the level of contributions or the initiative of guaranteed inflation.

This is the second international action. In February, ambassadors representing the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and the US reacted against the proposal to freeze the 2% contributions to this system.

"Through this open letter, we are trying to point the Government's attention towards the existent and future issues in the pensions system. It is our belief that, should the Government not return to the initial contributions to the Pier II private pensions schedule, this would affect the current Romanian income earners and will also have a negative impact on the entire Romanian economy. Foreign investors that set up private pensions funds administration companies here are losing their trust in this system and in Romania, if these reforms are not going to be carried on in the same form they have been outlined at the start of the system", The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Romania executive manager Nuria Simon Artigas declared.

The lack of an exact schedule for the increase of the Pier II contribution affects both the participants and the pensions administrators' businesses. The foreign authorities underline that "in Romania currently functions the private pensions fund with the most reduced contribution level worldwide (2%), while the private pensions funds obtained the best investments results in the world from their launch in May 2008 and up to present.

The letter recounts the fact that, according to the law addressing