Wool 17.7 16.8 38.4 33.1 10.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Breakdown included within state agricultural units. 2. Less than 0.1 percent. Source: Adapted from _Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1970_ (Statistical Yearbook of the Socialist Republic of Romania, 1970), Bucharest, 1970, pp. 329-345, 406, 430-431. CHAPTER 16 INDUSTRY Stimulated by a high rate of investment and an infusion of Western technology, industry has expanded at a rapid rate. A qualitatively inadequate labor force, poor organization, and insufficiently experienced management personnel, however, have not been able to attain levels of efficiency and quality acceptable to the Romanian Communist Party and the government. Lowering the cost of production and improving quality are considered to be essential prerequisites for expanding exports, which are needed to pay for imports of materials and equipment. Various measures introduced since 1967 have not achieved the government's objectives. Economic plans for the 1971-75 period call for raising productivity through greater specialization of production and better utilization of plants and materials. To this end, several new economic laws were passed in December 1971, the contents of which were not yet known in early 1972. NATURAL RESOURCES Though widely varied, the country's mineral and agricultural resources are generally inadequate to maintain the current and planned levels of industrial production and exports. Natural gas is a major exception. Formerly plentiful supplies of crude oil are falling off, and the likelihood of discovering new deposits is considered poor by oil industry officials. The heavy dependence on outside sources of raw materials led the government to provide economic and technical assistance to several developing countries for the exploitation of their mineral resources in return for shipments of mined products. This dependence has also been a major determinant of the country's political relations with other members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), particularly the Soviet Union, and with noncommunist industrial nations of the West (see ch. 10). Minerals and Metals