Business in Romania blog: Doing business in Romania and business issues

Monday, February 27, 2006

Here comes the new leader in the Romanian pate market :)

Scandia Romana, producer of Sibiu and Bucegi pate brands posted a 76 percent increase in the turnover for 2005, up to some 38 million EUR, Bursa reports.

The increased turnover has strengthened the company's leading position of the pate market, with a share of 56 percent. According to the company's management the most important increases were posted for Pate Sibiu, Pate Bucegi, Pate Poiana and Pate Sadu brands.

Way to go !

Posted by Mihai : 2/27/2006 12:00:00 am

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Fashionable Romania

Even though Romanians seem to aim mostly for internationally recognized fashion brands, it seems we can put up a fashion show of our own. Over February 23-26, Bucharest International Fair Romexpo Exhibition Centre will be venue to the 1st spring edition of the international exhibition of textiles, ready-made clothes, leather goods, furs, footwear, leatherwear and others...

Over 100 companies have announced their participation so far, coming from Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Pakistan (Pakistan fashion ?!?), Romania, Turkey, and UK.

It seems this spring is full of fashion show in Romania, after some recent fairs presenting wedding dresses, where I heard about some of the most "inspired" colors for the bride's clothing...yellow, pink (!!), blue, turquoise and other colors I cannot quite recall. Is white obsolete nowadays?

Posted by Mihai : 2/26/2006 11:55:00 pm

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Foreign Direct Investments at 5.1 billion euros in 2005

The FDI level boosted 26.8 percent in 2005 compared with the previous year, 5.19 billion euros, according to data of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

The Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments (ARIS) believes that the FDI volume attracted by Romania in 2005 represented a record, even if the privatization of the Romanian Commercial Bank will be cashed in this year.

The government sold 61.88 percent of the bank to Austrian Erste Bank for 3.75 billion euros.

Last year, the total foreign direct investments amounted to 5.18 billion euros, but the 0.3% difference is irrelevant since the data for 2005 is provisional, according to ARIS.

The draft data for 2004 reveals a total FDI of 4.098 billion euros.

The structure of foreign investments in Romania will considerably change in the years to follow as the state capital still to be privatized is running low

Greenfield investments will have an increasingly more important share in the structure of foreign direct investments as the rate of privatizations slows down.

Posted by Iulia Rasoiu : 2/22/2006 02:10:00 pm

New head for Citigroup Romania

Shahmir Khaliq is the new Citigroup Country Officer for Romania.

He succeeded Witold Zielinski, who returned to Poland as Chief Operations Officer of Bank Handlowy.

Shahmir Khaliq first joined Citigroup in 1991, and has held various senior positions within the Corporate and Investment Bank. In 2000, Shahmir was appointed to the management committee for Citigroup Pakistan.
Shahmir holds degrees in economics and finance from the London School of Economics and the London Business School, as well as an MBA from the University of Karachi.

Posted by Iulia Rasoiu : 2/22/2006 02:03:00 pm

Monday, February 13, 2006

Losing in the Davis Cup

Too bad that, after the great victory of Pavel in front of Roddick, we still lost in the end, 4 to 1.

In short, the games were like this:

Pavel vs Roddick - 6-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4
Blake vs Hanescu - 6-4, 7-6, 6-2
Blake vs Tecau - 6-1, 7-5
Roddick vs Sabau - 6-3, 6-3, 6-2

USA vs Romania (doubles) - Romania retired due to Hanescu's injury.

Too bad, but this is what it's like when competing with no. 1.

Posted by Mihai : 2/13/2006 10:31:00 am

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Amazon.com opens R&D lab in Bucharest

Amazon.com has begun recruiting for its software development lab, due to open in Bucharest.

Real estate sources say that the company rented, at the end of last year, two floors of an office building near Piata Universitatii. The number of employees may reach 600 specialists, sources on the market say.

The company is seeking to fill positions such as software development engineer, database architect, quality assurance engineer and office manager. It opened a similar center in November 2005 in Iasi, and announced an interest in establishing a second in Bucharest, but without giving a date. This would be Amazon’s sixth R&D center located outside the USA, adding to those in Scotland, South Africa and India.

The operator of the largest on-line shopping portal was established by Jeff Bezos in a garage in the USA in 1994 and has since grown to become a EUR 5 billion plus business. Over the years, Amazon has expanded its fields of activity, beginning by selling CDs and DVDs, and then electronics, toys and consumer goods. It posted revenues of about $7 billion in 2005.

Posted by Iulia Rasoiu : 2/01/2006 10:42:00 am

Romania Needs 30 yrs to Reach EU Development Level

Romania needs to register economic growth rates of 7% per year over the next 25 to 30 years to reach the development level of the European Union, stated the Deputy Director of Human Resources Department in the Ministry of Economy and Trade Constantin Parascho.

Romania needs to register annual rates of economic growth of 7 percent over the next 25 – 30 years to reach the level of Europen Union regarding development, as long as EU member states will reach development rates of 2 percent/year, said the MEC representative.

The top of economic growth is taken by China with 8-9 percent, followed by India, 6 – 7 percent, Russia and Brazil 5–6 percent.

The United States by 3 percent, and the EU an average of 2 percent, while the global economy has grown by 3.6 percent in 2005.

In Romania, the economic growth for 2005 was 4,2- 4,5 percent of GDP, over half of the level reached in 2004, when the economic growth was 8, 3, according to the preliminary data presented by the State Minister Gheorghe Pogea.

He showed that the growth rhythm of GDP was below the estimations made by the authorities, of 5,5-5,7 percent, the main cause being the unfavourable weather which prevented the achievement of infrastructure projects.

The National Statistics Institute announced for the first nine months of last year a rhythm of economic growh of 3,6 percent, as compared to 4,9 percent after the first quarter and over eight percent for the January-September period in 2004.

Posted by Iulia Rasoiu : 2/01/2006 10:39:00 am