Traveling around Romania, one sees two countries: one urban, dynamic, and integrated with the EU; the other rural, poor and somewhat stuck in the past.
Bucharest is a bustling metropolis with thriving modern services and a higher income per capita than the average for the European Union. A few secondary cities like Cluj, Iaşi, and Timişoara are fast becoming hubs of prosperity and innovation—Cluj is even becoming known as Romania’s Silicon Valley. Yet going to the smaller towns and the countryside, one gets the feeling that these places are still decades behind the capital and the rest of Europe.
Has Romania really…
