ANALYSIS: Better prospects for the construction market, in 2015 After another year of decline in the

After another year of decline in the local construction market, in which the projects financed from the state budget were again locked and a revival of the private investments was observed only in the second half of 2014, the majority of the companies in the sector is prepared, at least in words, to return to an upward trend of construction activity in 2015. The prospects for such an evolution are better, given the new political order and stability, the completion of the General Transport Master Plan and the availability of the European funds for the new financial period 2014-2020. Renovation projects, the thermal rehabilitation and several large private investments (shopping centers and office buildings) were the main sources that supported production and imports of construction materials in 2013 and 2014 in the context of a declining construction market during the latest five years. The construction sector, estimated at about 9-10 billion euro annually, will depend in 2015 mostly on the government's spending on infrastructure, but also on the private sector, which returned to a positive trend in the second half of this year. In 2014 continued most of the negative trends of the previous years, marked by delays in payment, major gaps in financing projects and low volume of new investments. Moreover, in 2014 we have witnessed a real "metastasis" of insolvencies in the construction sector and a permanent presence of political influence in public procurement procedures. Again, much has been said about the construction, but few things were done, and the government did not have the courage to use investments as the main means of stimulating economic growth. From the perspective of the coming years, the competitiveness of the construction sector has been severely affected, and the negative effects of insolvencies in this sector will negatively influence it at least on short term. The delay in drafting the budget for 2014 overshadows the development prospects of the market in 2015, although General Transport Master Plan was published, albeit with a delay of almost a year and major discrepancies between this document and the projects set as priority by the Romanian Government at the beginning of 2014.