Ioana Petrescu

Romanian economist and politician

Ioana Maria Petrescu


Minister of Finance
President	Traian Băsescu
Prime Minister	Victor Ponta Third Ponta Cabinet
Preceded by	Daniel Chițoiu
Succeeded by	Darius Vâlcov

Personal details
Born	(1980-07-01) July 1, 1980 (age 43) Bucharest, Romania
Residence(s)	Cambridge, MA
Alma mater	Wellesley College Harvard University
Occupation	scholar and activist
Profession	economist
Website	www.ioanapetrescu.ro

Ioana Maria Petrescu (born July 1, 1980) is a Romanian economist who served as the country's Finance Minister.^[1] She is a public policy scholar at Harvard Kennedy School^[2] and runs a Romanian NGO "Pur și Simplu Verde" ^[3] that supports local governments in their efforts to transition to a greener economy.^[4]

Biography

The daughter of two engineers, she was brought up by her grandparents in Cornu until she went to school in Bucharest.^[5] After graduating from the Mihai Viteazul high school, she received a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Wellesley College, and later a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

She worked as an N.R.I. Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, before she became an assistant professor at the University of Maryland.^[6] Taking a two-year leave from teaching, she was named in the second half of 2013 a state counselor for economic affairs by Romanian prime-minister Victor Ponta.^[7]

Finance Minister of Romania

After serving as economic adviser to the Prime Minister,^[8] in 2014 she has been named Romania's first female Finance Minister.^[9] While a minister, she pursued policies to cut tax evasion and tax avoidance, promote financial transparency, improve tax compliance, lower the tax burden for businesses and keep fiscal discipline.^[10] She cut the Social Security Tax paid by employers by 5pp to stimulate the business sector during the recovery from the Financial Crisis.^[11] She was considered the most performing minister in the Cabinet in June 2014 by the representatives of the business leaders.^[12] Other more notable achievements as a minister include the digitalization of the tax administration by the creation of the Personal Virtual Space,^[13] an online system of communication between taxpayers and tax administration, the introduction of the tax lottery to increase VAT compliance ^[14] and the cap on cash transactions, a measure meant to encourage the use of other payment methods and the increase in the bank account use in Romania.^[15]

Career

After leaving the ministry of finance, Ioana Petrescu led the Delivery Unit at the Prime Minister Chancellary handling the top six priorities of the prime minister including the public procurement reform, the energy strategy, and transparency in the State Owned Enterprises.^[16] She joined the new party, PRO Romania in 2018 ^[17] and became vice-president and ran the governmental strategy council.^[18] She left the party in 2020 ^[19] to create a non-profit organization, called Pur si Simplu Verde, with the under-secretary general of UN, Robert Orr and former finance and environment minister of Greece, George Papaconstantinou.^[20] The organization promotes the use of renewable energy and helps Romanian regions affected by energy transition to implement sustainable policies.^[21] In 2022, she was named European Climate Pact Ambassador and in this position, she promotes the use of renewable energy and green transportation at the local level in Romania. She currently is a senior research fellow at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.^[22]

Notes

^ (in Romanian) Adina Vlad, "Cine este Ioana Petrescu", Adevărul, March 3, 2014; accessed March 12, 2014
^ "Former Romanian finance minister returns to US as visiting fellow at Harvard". 4 July 2019.
^ "Ioana Petrescu lansează "Pur şi simplu verde". La eveniment au vorbit reprezentanţi ai ONU şi din mediul academic din SUA şi Marea Britanie". 18 January 2021.
^ "Cele 8 obiective de tranziție energetică ale Delivery Unit Hunedoara au fost aprobate în ședința Consiliului Județean Hunedoara". 30 September 2022.
^ "Andreea Esca despre Ioana Petrescu: Ai putea spune orice, dar nu ca e ministru de Finante" (in Romanian). Retrieved July 16, 2014.
^ "Ioana Petrescu Assistant Professor" (in Romanian). Archived from the original on September 22, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
^ "Cine este Ioana Petrescu, personajul principal al ultimelor 24 de ore, cum l-a întâlnit pe Victor Ponta şi cum a ajuns ministrul Finanţelor" (in Romanian). Ziarul financiardate=July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
^ "Surpriză de proporţii în cabinetul Ponta. Premierul o propune pe Ioana Petrescu, 34 de ani, la ministerul Finanţelor. Vedeţi noua stea a Finanţelor din România".
^ "Ioana Petrescu, prima femeie ministru de Finanţe, la Sinteza Zilei".
^ "Ioana Petrescu".
^ "Ioana Petrescu, la Adevărul Live: Există finanţare pentru reducerea CAS cu 5 puncte procentuale. Numai din insolvenţe se pot recupera 3,8 miliarde She also exempt the invested profit from taxation to stimulate investment". 5 September 2014.
^ "Performantele a 7 ministri, analizate de liderii de business la 100 de zile de ministeriat. Concluzia: activitate necorespunzatoare!".
^ "Primul-ministru Victor Ponta și ministrul finanțelor publice, Ioana Petrescu, au participat la lansarea aplicației "Spațiul Privat Virtual"".
^ "Jurnalul electronic și loteria fiscală, noile măsuri luate de Ioana Petrescu".
^ "Ministerul Finanţelor: Persoanele fizice vor putea plăti "cash" în limita a 10.000 de lei la tranzacțiile de imobile şi maşini. Modificări în proiectul de lege". 19 March 2014.
^ "President Asociatia Pur si Simplu Verde".
^ "Fostul ministru Ioana Petrescu trece la Pro Romania".
^ "Ioana Petrescu se întâlnește cu oamenii de afaceri din Sibiu". 8 October 2019.
^ "Fostul ministru de finanțe Ioana Petrescu pleacă din partidul Pro România. "O decizie necesară"". October 2020.
^ "Board of Directors".
^ "Consiliul Județean Mureș, pact pentru un județ "Pur și Simplu Verde"". 11 October 2022.
^ "TAUBMAN CENTER FELLOWS & SCHOLARS".