Romania and its poverty-alleviating competitiveness: a Central and Eastern European outlook

Competitiveness is a prerequisite for development and a critical ingredient for enabling national welfare in the nowadays challenging world, being more and more debated and approached by researchers and policymakers at the same time. Following these considerations, the article aims to illustrate Romania’s competitiveness ranking in fighting poverty and ensuring a decent level of living to people relative to the European Union’s positioning, through indicators comprised within the European Social Progress Index and the Global Competitiveness Index. The concern for this topic is backed up by prior research performed with respect to Romania’s social and economic competitiveness, claiming that the country has managed to improve its standing among European Union member states but it still has to struggle to get even better by following the best practices of these nations. Thus, there is a relentless need for the consolidation of both its economic cohesion by altering the quality of its infrastructure and institutions, as well as its social status through investments in education, knowledge and innovation. As for the methodology, the analysis of Romania’s competitiveness degree will firstly incorporate a literature review section, comprising poverty, competitiveness and competitiveness obtainment tools. The evaluation will also rely on document analysis of secondary data concerning competitiveness indicators retrieved from the websites of the institutions issuing them, namely Social Progress Imperative and World Economic Forum. The research intends to clarify how Romania can become more competitive in social terms, what fields require substantial progress and what the European Union countries can teach us in this sense.