Business in Romania blog: Doing Business in Romania and Romanian business news

The have great liver

2006-02-27T00:00:00.000+02:00

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 !

Fashionable Romania

2006-02-26T23:55:00.000+02:00

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?

Foreign Direct Investments at 5.1 billion euros in 2005

2006-02-22T14:10:00.000+02:00

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.

New head for Citigroup Romania

2006-02-22T14:03:00.000+02:00

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.

Losing in the Davis Cup

2006-02-13T10:31:00.000+02:00

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.

Amazon.com opens R&D lab in Bucharest

2006-02-01T10:42:00.000+02:00

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.

Romania Needs 30 yrs to Reach EU Development Level

2006-02-01T10:39:00.000+02:00

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.

Julius Meinl to start coffee shop network

2006-01-30T10:25:00.000+02:00

The producer of the Julius Meinl coffee brand is preparing to develop a network of coffee shops in a franchise system.

Austrian group Julius Meinl Industrie Holding GMBH, the producer of Julius Meinl coffee brand, last autumn acquired Novo SRL, a company headquartered in Targu Secuiesc, Covasna county.

There are already several Julius Meinl coffee shops in Bucharest, but, according to Dobri, these are not franchises, as they are only using the firm's brand. Julius Meinl Romania also targets an expanded distribution area and higher visibility at the seaside this year.

Romanian Businesswomen

2006-01-30T09:59:00.000+02:00

A BusinessWeek article writes about women in Business, with several references to the Romanian business landscape in this matter.

As it seems, the writer met with Ms. Anca Vlad, the most successful Romanian businesswoman, the one who created and is currently running the Fildas Group.

What to expect in 2006

2006-01-24T11:30:00.000+02:00

Daniel Daianu points out some trends to look for in the Romanian economy in 2006. As it seems to me, the article is not writen on a very optimistic mood, but on a more worried one. Might be good, but still I think he should have also pointed out some consideral progress made in the business sector.

More Austrians here

2006-01-22T22:04:00.000+02:00

Another Austrian investment comes to in Romania, as semiconductor company Infineon Technologies has opened a new development centre in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. Initially the centre will house 60 developers who will concentrate on security controllers for chip cards as well as power semiconductors with analogue and digital functions for use in automotive and industrial applications.

The activities in Bucharest are being managed by Infineon Technologies Romania SRL, which was founded in April 2005 as a subsidiary of Infineon Technologies Austria AG. Chip design, software development, and verification of these products represent the main focal points of the development efforts in Bucharest.

Infineon is also working with the University Politehnica of Bucharest to develop master-level programs, as they are planning for about 60 additional developers to be hired in Bucharest during the course of this year.

BCP still interested in the Romanian Banking Market

2006-01-21T09:11:00.000+02:00

Even though they have been defeated in the race for BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank), Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP) may launch a bank from scratch in Romania.

Still, BCP's interest in Romania does not look towards the comming Romania savings bank, CEC. BCP's chairman quoted it as being "out of the question".

In my opinion, one of the reasons for BCP's interest in Romania might be the powerfully emerging real-estate market, as BCP is comming with a very good experience from the Portugese market.

In Romania, there are about 1.5 new houses per 1000 inhabitants, while in Portugal the figure is much higher, about 10.5 new houses/1000 inhabitants. So, comming from such a strong real estate market, I would not be surprised for BCP to offer highly competitive real-estate financing options in Romania.

We'll have to wait and see.

The Music Blog

2006-01-15T22:59:00.000+02:00

I have recently launched a new personal project which is very dear to my heart - The Music Blog.

It's a blog about music, about what me and some friends like and dislike and why, news about various musical issues and, basically, lot of things that relate to music.

If you are interested, go check it out at www.musicblog.ro. Looking forward for your opinions on it !

P.S. Still working on some design improvements, so the version you will see might not be the final one. Also, please give your suggestions on this matter.

Phone prices to decrease

2006-01-13T10:11:00.000+02:00

The average price of a mobile phone will lower this year by approximately 9%, according to a study issued by the market research company iSuppli, quoted by Reuters.

The mobile phones will have an average price of 126 dollars comparing with the 142 dollars reported for 2005.

The number of mobile phones that will be produced this year is expected to be 850 million units.

iSuppli estimates that the reduction of prices in this sector will decrease in 2007.

However, due to many new phones containing USB ports to allow direct connections to PCs for music downloading, music services from the wireless service providers are often bypassed.
Further, new phones incorporating Wi-Fi capability are able to link to the Internet and place Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls at little or no cost -- again bypassing voice services offered by the wireless carriers. Some mobile-phone brands even incorporate Skype Technologies S.A.’s popular VoIP software to enable this capability.
As the number of phones with these features increases, this problem will grow in magnitude, iSuppli predicts.

By 2008, USB ports are expected in 73 percent of all new-model mobile phones, up from 30 percent in 2004, while music playback capability -- including MP3 -- is expected in 54 percent of new-model wireless handsets in 2008, up from 20 percent in 2004.

Slots for removable flash-memory cards, which can be used to store and transfer music files are predicted to reach a 43 percent penetration rate of new phones by 2008, up from 16 percent in 2004.
Finally, 14 percent of new-model phones in 2008 are estimated to contain Wi-Fi links, up from less than 1 percent in 2004.

To avoid working against each other, service providers and their mobile-phone suppliers must carefully orchestrate the combination of handset features and services offered to subscribers, iSuppli believes.

Google not on top 100?

2006-01-10T17:21:00.000+02:00

As Mihai said, Fortune published the top 100 companies to work for in 2006 in the US of A.

I have a big question mark above my head seeing that Google is not there. With their famous 20% "work-for-your-own-projects" time concept? Still, Microsoft, where they throw chairs at those who leave for Google, is on 42nd place.

Spam and Anti Spam

2006-01-05T10:34:00.000+02:00

Recently, Blogger introduced a "word verification box" at the end of the posting window for each post you enter on your blogspot blog. This is a typical (and a very annoying, in my opinion) way of fighting against spam.

What I hate about it is that it doesn't attack spammers, but it just puts another wall through they have to go through, while in the same time making our efforts of publishing / sending e-mails / commenting more difficult. And I specially hate it when the letters / numbers in the word verification picture are so hard to understand that you are very prone to making a mistake (some invented the "i cannot understand this, please give me another try with a new picture" box :)) ).

What is nice about it (and thanks to the smart minds and Blogger / Google for this) is that you can remove it, by sending a request in this matter so they can verify that your blog is not a spam one. I just did that, I hope they will answer fast enough. :)

P.S. To disable it, just click on the "? in a yellow circle" icon near "Word verification" on the bottom of your posting window on Blogger.

Mass SMS bring EUR 5 milion to operators

2006-01-05T10:26:00.000+02:00

It has been writen that the mass SMS trend in Romania got even more popular at the end of 2005, when about 81 million SMS-es were sent through the 2 most popular mobile phone operators, Connex-Vodafone and Orange. This brought them earnings of about EUR 5 million.

According to the calculations, each of the Connex-Vodafone subscribers sent about 10 SMS-es.

Now, I am getting sooo fed-up with receiving spam / mass SMS-es on Christmas, New Years Eve and other holidays. The thing which, to me, is most annoying is the lack of personalization in the messages. I know people who sent to half of their contacts list the same standard message. Come on, those people receive so many messages that they can't even keep track of who sent and who didn't.

What's even more interesting is that there are people who really appreciate those messages. As a friend told me these days, "that guy didn't even sent me a Happy New Year message". What, would you have wanted him to send you the same standard message that he will send to 10 other girls?

Again, source of the data is here (only in Romanian for now).

Welcome Back, Mihai

2006-01-04T16:46:00.000+02:00

Well, it seems the end of 2005 and the start of 2006 brings back among us (we as bloggers) the great almighty Miiiiihaaaaaaai Seceleanu !! :)

A very dear friend, a very good professional and really a nice person to have around in numerous ocassions. Yes, iBlog is back and the new posts are really interesting.

Way to go, Mihai, and I hope this time you're in it for good !

P.S. The blog is in Romanian.

Christmas in Maramures

2005-12-28T09:54:00.000+02:00

So, back from the (short) Christmas Vacation in Maramures. First time visiting this region and I must say I am deeply impressed by what I found there: amazing landscapes, great people, great food and a very nice atmosphere alltogether.

In order to get a better picture of how it looks like, here are some Maramures landscape pictures (sorry for the poor quality, some of them were made from the car...): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

BCR goes to ERSTE

2005-12-20T23:56:00.000+02:00

Despite all the predictions from the market, which said that Millenium will win for sure, when the envelope was opened (actually, it was a hard-disk), ERSTE had the best price.

So, by paying a price of about EUR 7.75 / share, ERSTE won the BCR package of 61,88% of the company.

The price offered by Millenium was and will not be disclosed.

The contract will be signed tommorow, 21st of December. As a premiere for the Romanian market, the contract will be made public immediately.

So, we are going to have an Austrian bank in Romania. Another one, we could say. This should be a good thing, right? at least, the good part of it is that they have significat experience in the region, which should lead to good management and good results.

Great Band, Great Album

2005-12-20T14:04:00.000+02:00

I recently found a great album, which is worth mentioning even on a business blog (hehe...Even business women/men listen to music, you know).

I am referring to Theatre of Tragedy's 2002 album called "Assembly". The band is well known to the gothic-rock fans from their early albums, when they played some real metal music (gothic), with lyrics sang in Old English.

Starting with Musique, the year 2000 album, they switched to an electronic rock / techno genre. Also, the lyrics changed dramatically.

I liked them since the beginning, I like them a lot nowadays too. Still, it's quite sad that the great voice of Liv Kristine won't follow them, since in 2004 the has been dismissed from the band.

But nevermind the story, just listen to the album. Theatre of Tragedy - "Assembly".

Later Edit: Leaves' Eyes (the new band of Liv Kristine) albums' are very much worth listening to. Try Vinland Saga for example.

P.S. I think I will make a habit in writing more about music on this blog...Or maybe start a new one dedicated to this subject. Any supporters or enthusiastics willing to participate? :))

Timeout Bucharest

2005-12-20T11:30:00.000+02:00

This isn't really news, as others mentioned it a while ago, but still...

We can expect to have the printed (and hopefully online, too) version of the popular TimeOut magazine in Bucharest as well.

Until then, you can look over their blog.

This is a very nice step-by-step entry in the market strategy...first launch a blog (which is cheap to have, easy to maintain and still ensures a nice contact to your future customers), then launch a website and finally go print !!

Looking forward for their first issue.

Nestle buys Delta Ice Cream

2005-12-19T13:22:00.000+02:00

This might be a good news for the ice-cream loving people :)

Nestle has bought the Greece-based Delta Ice Cream company, which is market leader in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. The acquisition price: EUR 240 milion.

Delta Ice Cream's business is about 122 mln EUR.

Swiss ice-cream comming our way :)

Soulfly comes to Romania

2005-12-13T17:16:00.000+02:00

Soulfly comes to Romania again....in 2 months.

On the 20th of February, in Timisoara, in club The Note, starting with 20:00.

I am soooo disappointed they are not coming to Bucharest. I had the chance to see Max live once and...He's amazing.

Definitely a must-go-to. If you're from Timisoara, don't miss it !

Rompetrol Takes Over Dyneff-France

2005-12-10T11:17:00.000+02:00

Rompetrol Group acquired the entire capital of Dyneff - the largest independent distributor of oil products in France - and of its affiliated entities while the acquisition is expected to double Rompetrol’s turnover in 2006, to USD 5 bln.

“This acquisition, Romania’s first and most significant one in the European market, will enable Rompetrol to double its turnover, which will reach $5 bln in 2006, double its storage capacity, increase the number of its petrol stations by 70 per cent, its total assets by 25 per cent, its operational profits by 20-25 per cent and its net profits by 10-12 per cent,” Patriciu stated.

He did not disclose the transaction value, but emphasised that it is a direct financing, mostly funded by Societe Generale.

Negotiations over the Dyneff take-over started eight-nine months ago, and detailed talks five months ago.

The transaction will be finalised in the first quarter of 2006.

The 226 petrol stations in the Dyneff network will be re-named “Station du Soleil” and will bear the Rompetrol logo.

New GM at Interbrew Romania

2005-12-09T08:42:00.000+02:00

Mihai Ghyka is going to be, starting from 1.01.2006, the new general manager of Interbrew Romania. He will follow Mihai Albu, who has been promoted as head of business unit for the region.

I got the chance to know Mihai Ghyka while working on a project together with Interbrew this year, and I can say he is a great guy and I believe he will do an excelent job.

Congratulations !

Personal Post

2005-12-07T22:11:00.000+02:00

1st good thing: I found someone as passionate about the job as I am.
2nd good thing: Is my boss.
3rd good thing: there are more to come.

:)

Sorry for the very slow posting, just been busy. Busy with that passionate work. But a nice comeback is about to come, so stay tuned (or RSS subscripted).

Wipro comming to Romania

2005-11-28T23:14:00.000+02:00

Indian IT major Wipro is looking to expand its business towards the East European and Middle-Eastern countries.

A statement from Wipro goes something like: "We are shortly opening, within the next eight to 12 weeks a centre at Bucharest in Romania in East Europe, which will be directed towards servicing the German and French market and we are looking at one more centre at Far-East. I cannot mention that right now but it's at an advanced stage of evaluation, which will be even more cost effective than China".

This is a nice strategy in outsourcing...competing with companies from other countries by moving to that country. This way, you can take advantage of the local benefits and also use the name and expertise behind your well-established company.

This might work if you are Wipro...

Virtual tour of Bucharest

2005-11-24T15:22:00.000+02:00

A new website was inaugurated yesterday allowing virtual visits of Bucharest.

The site, www.panoramax.ro/bucuresti presents Cismigiu Park, the Romanian Athenaeum, Revolution Square, Parliament Palace and Constitution Square.

The site is offered by AC Software. The city of Galati, the Prahova valley and Brasov can also be seen soon on the site.

Radio in your car

2005-11-21T09:39:00.000+02:00

One of the best radio stations I found recently is Radio Deea. What is so good about it? Well, one of the most important things is that there are no commercials ! Yes, none. Also, the music is quite ok for driving, is sort of a clubbin' music, more like house. Which is nice for driving.

You can find Radio Deea on 92.1 FM in Bucharest. Also, they have a website (very poor website) at www.radiodeea.ro.

The bad thing is that I didn't manage to find a live broadcast over the web, so I can also listen to it in the office.

If any of you knows about this, please let us know.

Consulting...

2005-11-19T12:05:00.000+02:00

In Bucharest there has recently been a well-promoted and big-fussed Job fair. You know, that kind of event where 200 companies try to find new employees or at least to enlarge their recruiting database and where young or not-so-young people look for the best-paid and good-opportunity job.

Quite ok, everybody wins, it's a nice event and this things should be done as often as possible.

But...and here comes a big BUT: I was reading today an article about the outcome of the fair, and in the end they summarize the most popular and most offered jobs for young people with no/little working experience. And one of them is ... taaa-daaaam...."Business Consultant" ("Consultant de afaceri" in Romanian).

And it makes me wonder...do these people really know what they are talking about??? I mean, how can you put on the same list and compare a business consultant job with a web designer, a sales representative (we all know what this means in Romania) and even an data center operator.

Where is the fault? Does the company really understand what they want from a business consultant? Do they believe they can train anyone within 1 month in order to do a great job in advicing the client? Or is it just another way of giving a nice name for a job maybe someone will apply for it?

I spent about 2 and a half years doing "consulting", project management and trying to understand the client's needs in a software company. And when I moved to a real management consulting job, I found out that my expertise in the field is quite limited and that this is veeery important. Even more, such a job does not only require experience, but it requires a very analitical thinking, good organizing, good communication skills and so on. And when I say "good", I mean good on a professional scale.

In my job, we are all called consultants, nevermind if it's me or if it's a guy with +20 years of expertise, comming from McKinsey and with a solid MBA behind. But the difference is huge. As in HUGE. Look at how Roland Berger hires its employees...you can't really become a full consultant without several years of solid management consulting expertise.

So, the message is - to both recruiters and candidates -, be careful what you wish for and how you ask for it. You don't want a junior giving advices to your major client. You really don't !

'Cause, as the client says... "I know I'm stupid, there's no doubt about this. But that's why I pay you, to come here and be smart and make me smarter. I can't pay you for being stupid".

Radar cameras in Romania

2005-11-18T10:22:00.000+02:00

Here is an unofficial list of video cameras with radar capabilities in Romania. I am not sure that this is real and that the police actually usses it, but...anyways, it might be useful.

Take care !

1 Aerogarii stalp consola stanga, intersectia ANTENA 1, aeroport Baneasa, Ion Ionescu de la Brad

2 INMH stalp consola stanga la 50m de intrarea la INMH

3 INMH stalp consola dreapta la 50m de intrarea la INMH

4 Academia Politie stalp simplu 10m pe Erou Iancu Nicolae, in scuar

5 Academia Politie stalp consola colt dreapta, pe DN1 ,cu 25 m inainte de intersectia Gradina Zoologica

6 LUKOIL Otopeni stalp consola partea stanga, la cca 1000m dupa coborarea podului de la centura

7 AGIP Otopeni portal 24m la breteaua de intrare in aeroportul Otopeni

8 Balotesti pasarela existenta in dreptul drumului spre centrul comunei Balotesti

9 Tancabesti stalp AND dreapta, in dreptul statiei particulare de benzina

10 Ciolpani pasarela existenta in dreptul statiei Petrom

11 Barcanesti portal 19m la raspantia cu drumul de centura,intrarea in Ploiesti

12 DN1A Rompetrol stalp consola stanga,pe varianta DN1, in dreptul intersectiei cu DN1 A spre Buftea

13 METRO Ploiesti stalp simplu in scuarul sensului giratoriu de la Metrou Ploiesti

14 Sinaia inters. DN Targoviste stalp consola dreapta, la intersectia cu DN7 Targoviste

15 Sinaia portal 17m la 100m de intersectia cu DN Targoviste, in drepul primelor hale MEFIN

16 Sinaia Ferdinand stalp simplu in centru, bd. Ferdinand (stalp beton, inca nu s-a montat)

17 Sinaia Ferdinand stalp consola la iesire Sinaia, intersectie cu varianta spre gara

18 Busteni stalp consola dreapta, bld. Marasesti, in dreptul drumului spre Gura Diham

19 Azuga stalp simplu dreapta,in dreptul caii ferate (inca nu s-a montat)

Richest Romanians

2005-11-16T14:57:00.000+02:00

The TOP 300 most wealthy Romanian people has been published again. Without many surprises, the top 10 looks as it follows:

1. Ion Tiriac - 1 billion USD
2. Iosif Dragan - 850 million USD
3. Sorin Ovidiu Vantu - 750 million USD
4. Micula Brothers - 700-750 million USD
5. Paunescu Family - 700-750 million USD
6. Ioan Niculae - 500 million USD
7. Gigi Becali - 400-450 million USD
8. Dinu Patriciu - 400-450 million USD
9. Voiculescu Family - 350 million USD
10. Dan Adamescu - 320 million USD

The cummulated wealth of the 300 is about 16 billion USD, which is about 22% of Romania's GDP.

Move over, India

2005-11-15T11:15:00.000+02:00

A nice article discussing Romania's potential in outsourcing, specially in software. Could Romania be the next India for IT? Read more here.

Six billion euros upgrade of Bucharest

2005-11-15T10:42:00.000+02:00

Bucharest needs emblematic buildings, constructed in a new architectural style, to become known among foreign tourists, stated Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu at the "Investment Opportunities in Bucharest" conference.

The Prime Minister has also pointed out urban development projects, including the reconstruction of the Lia Manoliu National Stadium, the upgrade of the capital's city ring, the replacement of old subway cars and creating eight new regional hospitals.

The large investment projects in Bucharest cannot begin without first solving the capital's biggest problem, road infrastructure, stated General Mayor Adriean Videanu, at the conference. According to Videanu, more than half the total investments scheduled by the municipality (approximately six billion euros) will be allocated to infrastructure upgrade.

The City Hall currently has the necessary resources to launch the investment programs.
The contract for the Esplanada could be signed next spring, as the authorities estimate a consultant for the deal should be selected within a week, according to Laszlo Borbely, minister delegate for Public Works.

The 800 million-euro project will be signed with TriGranit, which won the public-private partnership program after a tender. The Esplanada project includes a subway station, office spaces (75,000 square meters), residences (30,000 square meters) and commercial spaces (40,000 square meters).
Within the center, the public authorities will have 30,000 square meters, while space for cultural events, sports or other activities should total another 30,000 square meters. The land on which the project will be developed is owned by the MTCT and has a surface of over 107,000 square meters. Esplanada will be located near the Unirii Square.

Formatting HTML is not that hard

2005-11-14T14:14:00.000+02:00

Perhaps all of you are constantly receiving various newsletters, promotion e-mails and so on, either requested or not.

Nevermind the fact that most of them are spam, but sometimes the newsletters are so badly formatted and written that I wonder if these people really sell something, or they just waste their time sending them.

For example, I received today a newsletter promoting the "MONDEN" magazine in Romania. And the e-mail, standard Text e-mail, starts something like this:

"Primul an al epocii MONDENrnrnrnrn La un an de la aparitie, formula editoriala propusa de revista Monden, se dovedeste a fi un succes. Tratarea vietii mondene cu discernamant, separarea kitsch-ului de autentic, sublinierea ideii de lux, au fost principalele criterii ale echipei redactionale. Scopul nostru este acela de a trece dincolo de stralucirea trecatoare a momentului si a extrage lucrurile cu adevarat importante din fiecare eveniment.rn Acum, dupa un an [...]"

What the hell is that MONDENrnrnrnrn ?? Is this the name of the magazine? And why do they write everything on one line? And why do you start your e-mails with no Hello, Hi, Dear..., etc.?

If you don't know HTML or you don't have any communication common sense, why don't you at least hire someone to do this? It is a matter of minutes. Or you can even use a freeware solution that allows you to arrange and format the e-mails in quite a nice manner. At least, go search Google for some tips about addressing an e-mail. Specially if you're planning on actually generating an effect, other than the laughs of the readers.

Dacia to build one more factory

2005-11-13T11:33:00.000+02:00

It seems the success of the "boxy Logan" is pushing the marketing guys at Dacia to open a new factor in order to respond to sales from outside Romania.

Dacia is already building the car in Morroco, Columbia and Russia. The next factory could be in Iran, Brazil or China.

Full story here.

RON recovers from Monday's decline

2005-11-09T10:29:00.000+02:00

The European currency lost, in yesterday's session, almost one ban compared with the RON, after the two bani appreciation registered on Monday, moving off from the 3.7 RON limit, on a market that maintains its speculative character.

The euro opened yesterday's session at more than 3.69 RON, a level close to the Monday listings, but the sale orders brought a slow decrease of the exchange rate, in spite of some 3.7 RON increase expectations.

The listings slowly lowered to 3.67 RON per euro. According to the dealers, the euro sales came from the same banks that placed purchase orders the day before.

One of the dealers stated that the braking of the 3.7 RON per euro limit is improbable as long as the National Bank of Romania (BNR) still has something to say at this level.

Comparing with the European currency, the domestic currency maintains its winning position at which it started the year, the nominal appreciation situating at 7.1%.

Loudest, fastest ... longest

2005-11-07T16:36:00.000+02:00

It seems Manowar is the loudest band ever....they managed to reach 129.5 decibels in a concert in Great Britain (Spectacle of Music Tour, 1994). Before doing this, they announced their intention and asked people to use earphones.

In order to better understand what this means, you should know that sound levels above 85 dB are considered harmful, while 120 dB is unsafe and 150 dB causes physical damage to the human body.

A Boeing taking off makes a sound of about 140 dB at very close range. Windows break off at 163 dB.

On the other hand, Moby has the world's fastest track, called Thousand, reaching about 1015 bpm. What does this mean? Well, usually hip-hop music is played at 70-110 bpm and house music is played at about 140bpm.

Well, the conclusion ? No conclusion, both tracks are brilliant ! :)

That's all, folks.

Update: Another record from the music world... The longest album title is... watch out:

"When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right."

The album was by Fiona Apple in November 999. I bet the cover of the album is veeery interesting....and long :)

UPDATE 2: Here is the cover.

Connex - Vodafone

2005-10-31T09:49:00.000+02:00

This is one of the first days of the Connex rebranding to Vodafone in Romania.

The first vodafone package has been launched, called Vodafone Family.

The visual rebranding starts with putting the Connex and Vodafone logos together, one next to the other.

Also, the Connex website has changed, keeping the green color but incorporating the organizing and navigation style from Vodafone UK website - www.vodafone.co.uk.

I hope they will also make some better offers in order to allow me to buy a better phone :).

What do young Romanians want?

2005-10-28T12:13:00.000+03:00

According to a study made by GFK Romania, here are some key findings about what do young Romanians want (with my comments on them between brackets):

- 25% of them want to leave Romania for good (i don't).
- 49% of them would like to leave Romania at least for one or two years for studying or working abroad (maybe, in Sweeden).

- 83% of them want their own apartment (me included)
- 81% want a good job (i got one)
- 73% want to be financially independent (fortunately, i reached this several years ago)
- 64% of them want a family (now? hmm... depends on her)

Here is how "the future sounds" according to the study:
- 76% of them think of a better future (me included)
- 74% of them think Romania joining the EU will bring moree opportunities (me included).

Looking now at what do they think is needed in order to be successful, let's see:
- self-confidence - 81% (yes, very important)
- solid education - 76% (hmm...i would bet more on things learned on the job, not in school)
- foreign languages - 72% (a must)
- own skills - 69% (they can be improved)
- professional competencies - 68% (this comes with experience)
- good looking - 38% (hahaha)
- going around the law - 23% (hmm...i wouldn't bet on this)
- be a member of a political party - 23% (which party? i don't think you should try this. better look on top of the list).

Also, I would like a car, wireless throughout the entire country, a house and a dog. And a bottle of Jack, please.

What do you think? What else do you need in order to be successful?

Capital to host international car race in 2006

2005-10-28T10:44:00.000+03:00

Bucharest was introduced into the international car racing circuit, with the first FIA Grand Turismo Championship race to take place on April 23, 2006, on a course around Parliament Palace.

The Bucharest race will be the first of ten in the FIA GT championship for sports cars, with the other events including Silverstone, Magny-Cours and Bahrain.

City Hall expects to make a profit of around two million euros and the roads in the area will be repaired in order to host the race.

The course will not modify the structure of the area around Parliament Palace and the modifications will consist of building a spectator stand only.

The "Road City" circuit will have a length of 3,115 kilometers and designers of the project expect an attendance of 93,000.

It will be designed by German architect Herman Tilke, who has also designed the circuits in Sepang, Malaysia and Istanbul, Turkey, among others.

Reader's Digest Magazine Launches in Romania

2005-10-28T10:34:00.000+03:00

The first issue of the Romanian Reader's Digest went on newsstands today.

It features an in-depth survey about the aspirations of Romanian youth ahead of European Union integration, an exclusive U.S. Reader's Digest report on survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and a story on the threat of avian flu, which has been identified in Romania.

The Romanian edition will have an initial print run of 150,000 copies and will target an audience aged 30-55.

Reader's Digest Association began its book publishing business in Romania in April 2004, at the time marking the company's first new-country venture in nearly a decade.

The local entity is called Editura Reader's Digest. RDA's books published in Romania so far include "Discovering the Wonders of the World," "Great Mysteries of the Past" and "Curing Everyday Ailments the Natural Way." It also has begun offering musical collections, beginning with "150 Best Loved Melodies."

MS Office competitor from Romania ?

2005-10-25T11:04:00.000+03:00

Quite an interesting article on Forbes about the MS Office suite, its benefits and also its potential future, looks at some of MS Office's potential competitors.

Among them, an Office suite from a company called Jaspersoft.

"Tapping free software written initially by a developer in Romania, San Francisco-based Jaspersoft claims it can give customers basic business intelligence functionality at one-tenth the cost of larger vendors."

Alsways good to read about Romanian IT good performance :)

The article can be found here.

And what is with all the recent fashion in using the "uber" word? I thought it was only among some Romanians, but now I see it in a Forbes headline. Even I find myself doing this from time to time :) What's the catch ?

Wipro to set up BPO in Romania

2005-10-20T09:50:00.000+03:00

It seems software producer WIPRO Ltd will open a BPO facility in Romania.

"The new BPO facility will be located in Romania to expand our language capabilities for voice, transaction processing and level one and level two (L1 & L2) support services for infrastructure management," Wipro CFO Suresh C. Senapaty told IANS on Wednesday.

More details in this article.

Motherboard for both AMD and Intel

2005-10-17T09:42:00.000+03:00

ECS has taken advantage of their recent merger with PC Chips and released a very interesting and promising product. A hybrid motherboard that supports both AMD and Intel chipsets.

What do you think? Is it worth it? How much would you pay extra for having the opportunity to switch between AMD and Intel?

For a lot of technical specs and pictures, visit this link.

Chocolate and coffee on display

2005-10-14T09:44:00.000+03:00

For those of you in love with Chocolate and / or Coffee, I suggest you go check out the Chocolate and Coffee days at Sofitel Hotel in Bucharest.

The show will be held between 14th - 16th of October at Sofitel Hotel.

The entry is free and you will be able to taste (and buy, maybe) some of the best chocolates and coffees in the world.

Take care, though, as you know, chocolate can make you in love :)

"Rumor has it that the Aztec ruler Montezuma drank 50 goblets of chocolate each day to enhance his sexual abilities.

Researchers have studied chocolate and found it to contain phenylethylamine and serotonin, which are both "feel good" chemicals. They occur naturally in our bodies and are released by our brains when we are happy or feeling loving or passionate. It produces a euphoric feeling, like when you're in love." (more here: http://health.howstuffworks.com/aphrodisiac3.htm)

Google recruitment for Romania

2005-10-10T20:17:00.000+03:00

I just received this news over e-mail and I believe it's an excelent opportunity for you. It seems Google has opened its first position in Romania and is looking for people willing to do the job.

The job is that of a Regional Representative for Romania & Bulgaria and more details can be found here:

http://www.google.com/jobs/international.html#romania.

I wish you a successful application and I really hope for some good luck for myself in this :)

Google declares war to Microsoft

2005-10-07T09:23:00.000+03:00

Some rumours were heard a couple of days ago, about Google entering the Office market by launching a free spreadsheet and word processor tool available online.

Now the rumours are confirmed and an article in The Inquirer reveals the story.

Way to go, Google !

Looking forward for the official launch.

Autodesk buys Alias

2005-10-05T13:50:00.000+03:00

The creators of 3D Studio Max buy the creators of Maya. For USD 182 million in cash. The story is covered by: NYTimes, GamesIntrustry and Autodesk Blogger among others.

Thanks to Eugen for the info.

Germany Invests Big in Romania

2005-10-05T10:48:00.000+03:00

Germany is currently the fourth largest investor in Romania, with 12,201 German companies operating in the country, totalling EUR 1,033M underwritten capital during 1991 - July 2005, according to the National Trade Registry Office data.

The Romanian market has become a favoured target for German companies to expand to, particularly considering that Romania is close to the 2007 European Union accession date, which will turn the country into a strategic investment location in South Eastern Europe.

Investments carried out by German companies in the local market account for approx. 8.6 per cent of the total contribution to capital by international companies.

The Germans hold key positions in the Romanian industries, starting from retail, automotive component production and going on to acquisitions in the energy and financial sectors.

After companies such as HVB, Metro, RWE, Praktiker, Carpatcement, Continental opened businesses in Romania a few years ago, the Germans included, in the “Romanian acquisitions” chapter, companies Distrigaz Nord and Electrica Moldova as well, through E.ON giant.

German company officials also target Electrica Muntenia Sud, as well as other companies.

I hope they are going to "invest" in an Oktoberfest soon. :)

Romanians facing the floods

2005-10-04T12:54:00.000+03:00

You probably know already about the heavy rains that affected Romania this year... there are and have been a lot of interviews, shows on TV and radio about this and so on.

I saw yesterday a very nice statistics regarding this subject. It seems that, after the recent floods, the sales for rubber boots, raincoats, digging tools and so on have doubled or tripled in some cases. But the sales of insurance policies are pretty constant.

Are the romanians not educated about the possible benefits of an insurance? Is there not enough promotion to this topics? Or are we just reacting and we are not good at being proactive?

Leo (fake) Academy

2005-09-30T10:14:00.000+03:00

Thanks to Deea, I found out about the new initiative by Leo Burnett, called Leo Academy.

The main objective of Leo Academy, as pointed out by Stefan Iordache (article in romanian only), are to created "the most powerfull advertising school in Romania".

Just out of curiosity, I visited their website. And I learned a lot about Leo Burnett, LB Romania, the work and clients of Leo Burnett Romania, Press releases and so on.

So where is the "educational" content, guys ?

Or is it just the second website of Leo Burnett Romania? As it seems, the two websites (Leo Burnett Romania - www.leoburnett.ro and Leo Academy - www.leoacademy.ro) are identical !

Way to go, does this mean more PR for yourself?

UPDATE: I hope on November 7th, when the Academy should be launched, there will be more training content over the website. Still, you could have done better, guys. Much better.

About the Best Companies to Work for Chart

2005-09-29T13:43:00.000+03:00

As you probably know already, Capital published the "Best Companies to work for" (Top companii pentru care sa lucrezi - in Romanian) about 2 days ago.

I found some very interesting stuff in that top, that I would like to point out.

1. Oriflame.

First of all, it seems Oriflame is on the first position in the "best paying companies" top. But Ms. Monica Tatoiu, General Manager at Oriflame, says, in an interview in the same magazine: "There are no big differences between salaries in Oriflame. New employees earn about 6 million ROL and can go up to 8 million after a few months. Management personnel have salaries of about 2.400 - 2.600 EUR".

How does this sound? Best paying company hires new employees with 200 EUR and management has 10 times more and they declare "there are no big differences between salaries at Oriflame" ?? Weird.

2. Policolor.

Policolor is on the second position in the overall top. But, from the company's presentation, we can find out that the general environment in Policolor is very formal (the manager himself uses the word "formal" severeal times". And the final statement is very interesting: "For the employees who come to work by tram, we pay the monthly tram tickets. But, usually, our employees are payed good enough to come at work by their own car". Wow ! You are going to pay our tram ticket? Sounds great !!

3. Oriflame (again)

Oriflame, which is on 3rd position in the overall top, has a very interesting approach to human resources management. Here is the statement from Monica Tatoiu, General manager: "I embrace Stalin's (!!) theory: If you don't know, I will teach you; if you can't, I will help you; if you don't want, i fire you." How interesting....

This is just a few of the weird stuff in the "top companies to work for in Romania". We are looking forward for your input on more strange things you found out in Romanian companies.

Hungary ratifies EU accession treaty with Romania

2005-09-28T10:11:00.000+03:00

Lawmakers in Hungary's parliament have ratified the European Union accession treaty with Romania and Bulgaria. 257 deputies voted in favor, with six votes against and one abstention.

The accession treaty has to be approved by all 25 member states. Hungary has been a staunch supporter of Romania's accession to the EU in view of the significant Hungarian minority that lives in this neighboring country.

Solar eclipse visible from Romania

2005-09-28T10:08:00.000+03:00

On October 3 a sun eclipse will be partially visible from Romania, according to the Romanian Academy's Astronomy Institute.

In Bucharest, the eclipse will start at 10.15 a.m. and will last until 12.50 a.m., reaching its maximum level at 12.32, when the sun's disc will be covered more than half, which is the maximum coverage visible from Romania.

The eclipse will also be visible from Northern Portugal, Spain, Sudan, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tunis.

The part of the sun disk that will remain uncovered during the eclipse resembles a ring, as the shadow made by the moon's passing in front of the sun will not touch the Earth's surface.

Next March a total eclipse of the sun, with a longer time than the one visible in Romania on August 1999 will take place. The moment when the sun will be totally covered will last over four minutes.

Romanians at Google Code Jam

2005-09-27T11:03:00.000+03:00

Google recently published the results of the Code Jam 2005 competition. The Code Jam tournament is a timed contest where all participants compete online to solve the same problems under the same time constraints. The competition is available in four programming languages - Java, C++, C#, and VB.

Looking at the winners list, it turns out some of the winners are from Romania...at least looking at their names. Too bad Google did not disclose the nationality of each of the winners.

So, here are the Romanian-looking names:
Matei - 15th place
cvoinescu - 57th place
Dan[Popovici]

Of course, there might be many other Romanians out there, with international nicknames.

Congratulations to all the contestants and specially to the winner, Marek Cygan, a student at Warsaw University, who won the USD 10.000 prize.

On Topcoder, a sponsor of this contest, Romania is ranked on 10th place.

Price of admission - $900 millions

2005-09-23T16:30:00.000+03:00

The is a list where being admmited requires over USD 900 million. The good thing is you don't have to pay it, you just have to own it.

Yes, I'm talking about the Forbes 400 richest Americans list.

Top of the list is, again, for the 11th consecutive year, Bill Gates of Microsoft. His wealth this year is of about USD 51 billions. He is followed, again, by Warren Buffet, with a total of USD 40 billions.

Noteworthy is the ascent of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were ranked 16th by Forbes with $11 billion each, up from No. 43 last year, when they each had a net worth of $4 billion. What is even more remarcable is that Brin's and Page's post-IPO wealth is raising at speeds faster than Bill Gates' wealth after Microsoft went public.

I am looking forward for the day when Google will make Microsoft "an offer they can't refuse".

I love my iPod

2005-09-23T11:00:00.000+03:00

Well, finally. After months and months of looking and admiring Alex's iPod Mini, I got one too. And it's great !!

I was (and stil am) amazed by the simplicity of the design, by how those guys managed to integrate so much functionality into a 103 grams device.

I had no problem using it, except for synchronizing it with Outlook. There, an unexpected error occured, which I didn't manage to solve. But after installing ipodsync, everything worked out fine.

It is a trully revolutionary device, that can easily outperform most of the mp3 players on the market. You can also use it as a mobile hard-drive or even as a basic-functionality PDA. You can have your calendar, contacts, notes and e-mails on it while travelling, which is awesome.

So I strongly recommend it to you. Its a really worthy investment !

Wireless points in Romania

2005-09-21T10:20:00.000+03:00

According to Intel, in Romania there are currently 78 wireless points. Their distribution reveals that 79% of them are in hotels, 9% are in universities and 9% are in bars and restaurants.

Bucharest has about 20 Wireless points, but Brasov is currently "The Most Unwired City", with almost 20 wireless points to a much smaller population.

Constanta has 11 wireless points, Timisoara has 6 and Cluj Napoca - 5.

I must tell you i has been quite hard for me to find wireless points in Romania, specially in pubs and bars. The only one I know is at Grand Cafe, near Turabo. Also, I heard some rumours that Turabo will install one pretty soon.

Do you know any other wireless points in Bucharest ?

New manager for Ericsson Romania

2005-09-19T11:36:00.000+03:00

Ericsson Romania has a new general manager. Adriana Boersma-Rodriguez, will replace Janos Fugedi, who has been dismissed in April 2005.

Before this, Adriana was vicepresident and manager of the Global Services department of Ericsson. She is 43 and has a master in financial accounting and a master in industrial systems engineering.

We wish her good luck !

More low-cost flights for Romanians

2005-09-16T10:25:00.000+03:00

It seems another low-cost operator, SkyEurope, will add Bucharest on its flights schedule. Dragos has it covered.

The best payed HR Manager in the world

2005-09-15T09:50:00.000+03:00

....is probably going to be Kai-Fu Lee, who is leaving Microsoft for a job at Google, in helping them to build an R&D center in China.

A few days ago, the US court ruled in favour of dr. Lee being able to work for Google, after Microsoft sueing both of the (dr Lee and Google) for breaking the confidentiality pact he done with Microsoft.

As Tom Burt (Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel) said, "Dr. Lee is going to be the highest-paid HR manager ever."

Speculations about his paycheck go around the figure of USD 10 million for the entire contract. Google paid Lee a USD 2.5 million signing bonus and promised a USD 1.5 million bonus after one year, plus a USD 250,000 salary and options on 10,000 shares of Google stock, according to court documents. If he stays for four years, Lee also will receive another 20,000 Google shares, currently worth USD 5.8 million.

Lee also demanded that Google pay all his legal fees if Microsoft sued, a request that was granted.

Now, this is a high paycheck. But I hope he deserves it and I hope the added value he will bring into Google will make the company even better.

It seems Google is on a hiring spree, following the hiring of "the father of internet" and a lot of other brainy guys. Also, it's very interesting to see how others react to this kind of news (throwing chairs !?! )

Google launches Blog Search

2005-09-14T15:54:00.000+03:00

This is great news !

Google has just launched its Blog Search Engine - http://blogsearch.google.com.

It's been nearly two and a half years since Google purchased Pyra Labs, the company that built the Blogger publishing service, and Google has been promising blog search ever since then. But now we finally have it.

Still, the goal is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service.

You can also save a blog search as an alert that gets updated any time new content is posted matching you query. Google blog search allows you to issue a query and then subscribe to that query via your RSS feed reader.

For more information, see the Google Blog Search FAQ.

Also, Google had a great initiative for helping people affected by Katrina. Congrats !

Who sucks more - Astral vs RDS

2005-09-13T15:49:00.000+03:00

A lot of people, on forums, on blogs or in real life are complaining about poor Astral or RDS / RCS services, two of the most important cable television networks in Romania. So I decided to do a simple statistic, using the same old Google.

Basically, the assumpition is that the most popular term for expressing somehting bad in a non-formal manner is "it sucks".

So I googled Astral and RDS for the following search terms: Astral sucks, "Astral sucks", RDS sucks and "RDS sucks". Please take into account the results using " ", which indicates that the two words appear one near the other. The searches have been conducted ont he entire www, not only in Romania.

...And the results are:

Congratulations RDS - you suck more !

Ease of Doing Business

2005-09-13T11:22:00.000+03:00

The World Bank, together with the International Finance Corporation, have recently issued a report called Ease of Doing Business 2005.

The report analyses the ease of doing business (opening, operating and closing a company) in the countries around the World.

Romania is ranked on the 79th place out of 155 countries, better than Russia, Greece, Macedonia and others. Also, China and India, some of Romania's most fierce competitors in software development, are ranked on 91st and 116th respectively.

Romania is also mentioned as a good example in the case of easiness in closing a business (isn't it ironic) - see the overview for more details.

You can read more about the report in this press release or by downloading the overview (PDF).

Update: Here is the top ten

1 New Zealand
2 Singapore
3 United States
4 Canada
5 Norway
6 Australia
7 Hong Kong
8 Denmark
9 United Kingdom
10 Japan

Andreea Rosca leaves Capital

2005-09-12T15:46:00.000+03:00

This is not exactly news, as it happened in the beggining of September, but is certanly an important event.

Andreea Rosca, chief editor at Capital Magazine, decided to leave the publication she has been working for in the last 13 years in search of new challanges.

She will leave Capital starting from 1st of November and she will be replaced by Iulian Bortos, chief editor for the Business department of the publication.

Andreea Rosca has been working with Capital since 1992. She became editor in chief from october 1999, replacing Ionut Popescu. Ionut Popescu became recently Ministry of Finance in Romania, but has been replaced from this job a couple of weeks ago. It is almost certain that Ionut Popescu will return to Capital in the next months.

Andreea Rosca says she has not decided for any future projects now, but she will convinced her future job will still be in the Media industry.

You can read an interview with Andreea Rosca and Iulian Bortos on this subject, both of them in Romanian.

Japan Credit Rating upgrades Romania's rating

2005-09-12T10:47:00.000+03:00

JCR agency has improved Romania's rating for long term foreign currency loans to "BBB minus", a low investment risk with stable perspective and to "BBB for local currency debts, according to a press release from the agency.

JCR representatives said the evolution of ratings was conditioned by the current account deficit, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) representing 31.7% of the average GDP of EU members, the existence of corruption and human rights issues, the need to reform the legal system and to improve the competition environment.

Positive points underlined by JCR were reduced public debt-service payments brought by extended loan terms and falling interest rates, the generally improving macroeconomic trend and the maintenance of fiscal discipline.

Romania's GDP growth rate decelerated to 5.9% in the first quarter of 2005, from 8.3% in June 2004, but the economy still remains solid. First quarter growth was led by a 12.1% expansion of consumption.

Start ordering your Diesel Logan

2005-09-09T11:48:00.000+03:00

Starting today you can order the new Diesel Dacia Logan.

The car is equiped with a 1.5l engine with 65 HP. Dacia now takes orders only for the Ambiance and Preference versions, with prices of EUR 7.270 and EUR 7.970 respectively. The price for the Laureate version will be of about EUR 8.600, but the diesel version will have no ABS.

If you are interested in testing the new Diesel Logan, you can do this in the Open Gates campaign that will take place between September 29th and October 3rd.

Top 10 Malefic by BitDefender

2005-09-08T10:00:00.000+03:00

Bitdefender released the Top 10 Malefic chart, presenting the most dangerous virus threats for August 2005.

First positions are taken by Zafi.D, Antiman.A and Netsky.P. While Zafi and Netsky are quite known worldwide, Antiman is a pure Romanian viruses that is aimed at deleting the "manele" songs on infected computers. This way, it searches for specific keywords in mp3 file titles and it deletes whatever sounds like manele :)

As BitDefender said, the virus became quite popular due to its complex and well developed spreading techniques, but also because of the fans of this virus that helped it in its distructive missions.

From my knowledge, this would be one of the very few viruses with FANS helping it. Of course, everyone should take care about its side effects, like slowing down the computer and the web navigation speed.

I wonder if the creators of Antiman have any statistics about the number of files deleted by this virus. Any guess?

Tengelmann to open stores in Romania

2005-09-08T09:54:00.000+03:00

Plus Discount, a subsidiary of the German distribution group, Tengelmann, will open at its first 15 stores in the Romania market in November.

The announcement came from Uwe Klostermann, the company's general company, who stated that three of these stores would be located in Bucharest.

The value of the investment is expected to be approximately 200 million euros.

The company is looking at cities with a minimum population of 30,000.

A typical company store has a total surface area of 5000 square meters, of which 1,200 is used as selling space. Each store requires a 1.5 million euro investment.

Blue Air announces new destinations: Paris, Madrid, Bratislava, Torino and Verona

2005-09-08T09:48:00.000+03:00

Low cost airliner Blue Air will include in its flights, starting September 27, Paris as a new destination.

The plans of the airline company also include Madrid, Bratislava, Torino and Verona, and these destinations should become active by the end of the year.

This destination is part of the company's new plan of diversifying the routes it is presently using.

The next destination is Madrid, starting in October.

The prices for a Blue Air ticket tart from 38 euros plus taxes and increases depending on the time of making the reservation.

BCR granted The Banker Bank of the Year Award 2005

2005-09-07T09:39:00.000+03:00

UK financial magazine The Banker, member of Financial Times press group, has granted the Bank of The Year Award 2005 to Romanian commercial bank Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR).

Some 510 banks from more than 138 countries registered for The Banker 2005 Awards competiton.

BCR received the award for its continuous growth trend over the past years.

BCR's net profit rose from 43.26 mln euro in 1999 to 128.98 mln euro in 2004. BCR holds 25 percent of the market for corporate loans and 30 percent of the market for loans for individual clients in the country.

In terms of bank deposits from individual clients, BCR holds 32 percent of the market.

In addition, the award reflects the high performance of BCR group members BCR Asigurari, BCR Leasing, BCR Asset Management and BCR Securities.

Note that this is the fourth time that BCR receives The Banker Bank of the Year award.

BCR ranked 332nd in The Banker's top 1,000 commercial banks in the world last year, up 40 positions from 2003.

S&P upgraded Romania's rating

2005-09-07T09:33:00.000+03:00

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long- and short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of Romania to 'BBB-' and 'A-3', from 'BB+' and 'B', respectively, on improving government indebtedness indicators.

At the same time, the long-term local currency rating on Romania was raised to 'BBB' from 'BBB-', and the 'A-3' short-term local currency rating was affirmed.

The outlook is stable.

Romania is the twelfth sovereign currently rated by Standard & Poor's that has made the transition to investment grade from speculative grade.

The full analysis on Romania will be published later today on RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system.

The report will also be posted on Standard & Poor's public website, www.standardandpoors.com (select Credit Ratings, then select Sovereigns from the left-hand menu, then find under Credit Reports).

S&P rating for Romania improved

2005-09-06T19:55:00.000+03:00

Here it goes again....I am starting to like the guys from S&P :)

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long- and short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Romania to BBB- and A-3, from BB+ and B, respectively, on improving government indebtedness indicators. At the same time, the long-term local currency rating on Romania was raised to BBB from BBB-, and the A-3 short-term local currency rating was affirmed. The outlook is stable.

Romania is the twelfth sovereign currently rated by Standard & Poor's that has made the transition to investment grade from speculative grade. The full analysis on the Republic of Romania will be published later today on RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system. The report will also be posted on Standard & Poor's public website, www.standardandpoors.com (select Credit Ratings, then select Sovereigns from the left-hand menu, then find under Credit Reports).

Investments in Romania going up

2005-09-06T19:53:00.000+03:00

Romania's direct foreign investment has increased by 15 percent in the first half of this year to euro 1.48 billion (USD 1.85 billion), Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said Tuesday.

Tariceanu, who was launching Romania's new export strategy, urged authorities to do more to assist investors and local businesses to help the country be more competitive on foreign markets.

Outlining the new strategy for exports, Tariceanu said that Romanian companies should try to reorient their exports in the European Union toward more sophisticated products. He also urged Romanian businessmen to expand their operations in the southeast European region and former Soviet states.

Connex Data Pack

2005-09-02T14:22:00.000+03:00

One friend of mine had some interesting experiece with the Connex 3G services and I believe it is important for you to hear about them, so you won't have more surprises like he had. Below is the story I received from him:

For those who would like to purchase data services packs from Connex...

Honestly, I waited for more than a year for 3G services (UMTS technology) to enter Romanian telecommunication market so I can be able to use mobile internet broadband.

A few days ago, it happened. Along with a promotional offer for a 3G service subscription, I received a GSM/UMTS terminal. The ordinary offer (33 USD)
including voice, video streaming and data services (10 Mb) comes with a bonus of 23 Mb monthly data usage for mobile internet for a period of 11 months.

For those who need a larger traffic Connex offers data packs which can either be added to existing voice offers or be purchased as independent packs. In case one chooses a supplementary data pack to the current promotional offer they loose the 33 Mb data usage included.

I found out all these from a Connex customer service representative(*222) who at some point of our discussion put me on hold to check it with a superior, and them reconfirmed it all to me, blaming it on an error of the billing system .She suggested me to check again the company’s website, maybe I'll find an extra option that will may replace the current one.

At present, the situation is the same. I was not offered a discount at my post paid, still am not able to use the 33 Mb internet data usage included in the offer. I want to believe this is just an error in the billing system of one of the major companies on mobile telecommunication market and it will be soon taken care of.

The offer is found at:

http://connex.ro/personal/produse_si_servicii/servicii_3g/tarife/index.jsp?locale=en

The eKontent Blog

2005-09-02T11:53:00.000+03:00

I am extremely pleased to announce you the launch of one of the very few corporate blogs in Romania - that is the eKontent Blog.

eKontent Blog is eKontent's web content management solution blog. It is a source of information aimed at presenting the Romanian and international business landscape in the areas of content management, corporate portals, web design, search engine optimization and other related topics.

The eKontent blog is and will be maintained by the eKontent team, a group of fine enthusiastic guys and girls that helped and have a significant in the development of the eKontent solution - the Romanian market leader in terms of web content management solutions.

We are aiming that the eKontent blog will help the general public - by presenting the benefits and advantages of a good web content management solution implementation and the dos and don'ts, our clients - by presenting the latest innovations and add-ons and how you can benefit from them and our competitors - by giving them ideas and suggestions for improvement.

Please visit and give us feedback about it !

THANKS !

Enterprise Applications in Romania

2005-09-02T10:32:00.000+03:00

The Enterprise Applications Suite market in Romania - that is mainly business software applications - will grow by 24% this year.

The value of the market was 35.4 milion dollars in 2004 (26% growth from 2003).

The main players on this market are Siveco, SAP and Oracle, which count (together) form about 60% of the market. Their rankings are:

1. SAP - 24%
2. Siveco - 18.7%
3. Oracle - 17.4%

The public sector counted for most of the spending in this industry, followed by the retail industry.

All these data come from an IDC report.

In the same market, Kondiment Solutions offers web content management solutions and Intranet - Microsoft Sharepoint - implementation services. For more information, don't hesitate to ask. And this is not a commercial, it's pure facts :)

FID reaches 1.5 billion euros in H1

2005-09-02T09:59:00.000+03:00

The total value of foreign direct investment into the Romanian economy closed in on the 1.5-billion-euro figure, growing 15 percent as compared with the same period last year, a release of the Central Bank (BNR) informs.

According to BNR in the first six months of 2004 foreign direct investments amounted to 1.29 billion euros.

Taking into account June alone, the value of FDI rose by almost 30 percent, totalling 531 million euros.

According to data provided by the National Office of the Trade Registry (ONRC) the value of social capital foreign companies had, was of 658.3 million euros.

The top five of investors sees the Netherlands in pole position, followed by Austria, France and Germany.

US ranks only fifth while Italy comes in sixth though in June alone 235 of the 1,035 newly set-up firms were Italian.

The Romanian Agency for Foreign Investment (ARIS) announced that this year's target is a FDI level of 3.2 - 3.8 billion euros.

In 2004 FDI amounted to 4.1 billion euros.

.eu versus .com

2005-09-01T15:11:00.000+03:00

A recent article from Capital Magazine discusses about the .EU domains which seems that will enter in the web space in the near future. Also, the article has an appealing name, like the .eu domains will fight with the .com domains.

In my opinion, this is just another scheme aimed at promoting the EU brand in spite of the US-of-A brand. The only difference is that .com doesn't necessarily mean that website is in the States.

The .com domain is one of the top-level domains that was created in 1985, with the purpose of serving commercial websites. Nowadays, the domain is operated by VeriSign and everyone is free to register such a domain, without the need of any proof that the website is actually doing any commercial activities.

There are other top-level domains, such as .edu, for example, where registering such a domain is not everyone's privilege. Under the present system, only post-secondary institutions that are accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies are eligible to apply for a .edu domain.

In geographical terms the .EU domain might compete with the .US domain, in the ever-lasting European struggle to be on top of the US in every manner. Nowadays, registrants of .us domains must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States. But the domain is not highly used, being traditionally regarded as a domain for US institutions and organizations.

Personally, I am very skeptical about all the European companies switching to .eu instead of .com. It would not be very convenient, specially because (1) they might not necessarily regard themselves as "European" companies, rather German, Romanian or UK companies, depending on the country they originate from and (2) because if a company is widely European, there are a lot of chances that it is also present in non-European countries, and the .com domain name would serve it better.

Nice: Did you know that www.symbolics.com is the oldest and still existing .com domain in the world?

Lists of banned air carriers

2005-08-31T10:59:00.000+03:00

Proposals for a European blacklist were still working their way through lawmaking institutions, prompting individual countries to take action in the meantime.

Meanwile, France and Belgium have issued blacklists of airlines prohibited from using their airports, in an attempt to allay public fears about flying after a recent series of deadly crashes.

France's list of banned airlines is: Air Koryo of North Korea; Air St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgin Islands; International Air Services of Liberia; Thailand's Phuket Airlines; and Linhas Aereas de Mocambique and Transairways, both from Mozambique.

On the Belgian list were Africa Lines of the Central African Republic; Air Memphis from Egypt; Air Van Airlines of Armenia; Central Air Express from Congo; Libya's ICTTPW; International Air Tours Limited from Nigeria; Johnsons Air Limited of Ghana; Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda; and South Airlines of Ukraine.

Swiss civil aviation officials said they planned to release a similar list Thursday.

Other European countries have rejected national blacklists. The Netherlands, for example, says such a move should be the result of a joint effort by the 25 EU countries.

Starting Sept. 8, different European Union member states will meet in Brussels to work on harmonizing rules to ban or suspend a company's flights, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said Monday.

AAA expands in Romania

2005-08-31T10:56:00.000+03:00

The Czech second -hand car dealer AAA Auto will open on Thursday a showroom in Bucharest, and its sales network will be expanded next year with one more unit in Constanta or Timisoara.

The company's spokesman, Camelia Rauta, said the company's investments in Romania till now total approximately two million euros.

The funds were mostly allocated for car stock, preparing personnel and announcing through media the event.

AAA Auto intends to invest by 2007 up to 25 million euros for another two units in Bucharest and eight across the country.

Romanian Olympic women's team disbanded

2005-08-31T09:48:00.000+03:00

Romanian gymnastics was in disarray on Tuesday when the women's national team, winners of four Olympic golds in Athens, were disbanded after two of their leading members went nightclubbing without permission.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation (FRG) said it broke up the team after state television station showed triple Olympic champion Catalina Ponor and Floarea Leonida returning from a Bucharest nightclub to their hotel early on Sunday morning.

Romania's national coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, with no team at their disposal, have asked the FRG if they can resign.

Earlier this month, double Olympic champion Monica Rosu and Alexandra Eremia quit the team after gaining weight and losing interest in their national training programme.

A fifth member of Romania's Olympic team, Daniela Sofronie, has since followed suit.

The 38th world championships will take place in Melbourne, Australia from November 21 to 27.

BitDefender proactively detects viruses

2005-08-29T16:03:00.000+03:00

Well, this news made me happy, as I am a BitDefender user ( with license :) ).

The guys and girls from www.av-test.org made some tests on the reaction speed of over 30 antivirus solutions around the world and BitDefender was one of the few to proactively detect viruses (like Bozari, Zotob and Drudgebot) right in the moment they appear, without the need of any virus definition updates. Download the test results here.

This is because of the HiVE (Heuristics in Virtual Environment) technology implemented in BitDefender, which analyses potential malicious codes even without virus definitions.

Of course, this does not mean that a very old version of BitDefender will detect all new viruses nowadays, but is an increased chance that, when a new virus strikes, you will be protected.

Congratulations to the guys at BitDefender. They are doing a really good job. And they have a very nice working atmosphere in their offices :)

Government will adopt new fiscal strategy this week

2005-08-29T11:43:00.000+03:00

A new fiscal strategy for the coming years developed by the Ministry of Public Finances will be discused this week by the Government.

New stipulations of the fiscal strategy include increasing taxes for houses and apartments that exceed 100 square meters, changing taxes for vehicles by fixing rates for every 200 cc of engine capacity depending on the vehicle's class. Vehicle taxes will be calculated at between 10 and 60 lei (2.8 - 17 euros) per 200 cc.

The new fiscal strategy also contains a proposition to increase the Value Added Tax from 19 percent to 22 percent and raising the reduced VAT rate from nine percent to 11 percent. The reduced VAT rate is applied to medicines, books, magazines etc.

Currently, companies with a maximum of nine employees and an annual turnover of less than 100,000 euros pay a three percent tax on turnover to the state budget. The legislation also stipulates these companies must have at least one employee.

The new fiscal strategy includes provisions raising the number of employees to a minimum five.

Romania's four government priority areas

2005-08-29T11:40:00.000+03:00

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu says infrastructure, education, healthcare and agriculture are the priorities of the government's modernisation efforts.

Tariceanu was addressing participants of the Summer School of the National Liberal Youth in the southeast town of Mamaia Saturday (27 August)

In other news, the European Commission's Ambassador to Bucharest, Jonathan Scheele, reiterated on Friday that nothing could stop Romania from acceding to the EU in 2007, if the country fulfils its commitments.

He confirmed that the Commission is collecting data related to the country's progress report, due for release this autumn.

I love Heineken

2005-08-27T15:50:00.000+03:00

Yeah, I do. I really do. I just love it.

I am not the usual fan that has Heineken shirts, Heineken shorts, Heineken pen, Heineken all over the place. No. I just have a Heineken glass.

But I would love the T-Shirt below. It's just great ! So, if you love me, you could buy me one. My birthday is tommorow !

Thanks to Eugen for the picture.

Orange reaches 6m customers

2005-08-26T19:38:00.000+03:00

Mobile operator Orange Romania has become the first mobile operator in Romania to reach 6m customers, InvestRomania reports. Orange previously announced 5m customers in January.

In June, mobile phone market penetration surpassed 50 per cent in the country, and estimations for the end of the year are envisaging penetration of up to 60 per cent, these being indicators of the economic climate in Romania.

In the Romanian mobile market, Orange Romania is the mobile operator that for the last two years has registered the largest increases in both customer base and revenues. Connex seems to be going down....i wonder when will the Vodafone aquisition begin to show its effects, if any.

Romanian Olympics in Informatics

2005-08-25T21:04:00.000+03:00

Romanian Olympics have won four medals - 2 silver and 2 bronze medals - in the International Olympiad in Informatics that took place at Nowy Sacz, in Poland, between 18 and 25th of August, 2005.

These brilliant guys names are Dan Ionut Fechete (Suceava), Mircea Bogdan Pasoi (Ploiesti), Marin Radu (Focsani) and Daniel Vasile Pasaila (Suceava).

These were some of the best performers out of over 300 participants from more than 80 countries. CONGRATULATIONS and keep up the good work, guys !

Maybe this will also contribute to the software development decision of European and American companies when looking at Romania compared to other potential candidates. And Kondiment Solutions is one of the most reliable software development partners you can find here.

Google talks into the future ...

2005-08-25T15:02:00.000+03:00

The word has already spread with amazing speed throughout the entire web-surfers-and-google-addicters community from all around the world...but still, it's a good to mention it.

Google launched Google Talk yesterday, an instant messenging and instant chat (communication) tool that is available for download at www.google.com/talk. It has a nice and simple look-and-feel and is very much oriented towards chat and not very much towards instant messenging.

I personally liked the design, the nice way it integrates with your Gmail account and the nice arrangement of chat windows. Still, it lacks some nice features that YM has and which I cannot really "instant-message" without: emoticons, stealth settings, groups and more.

In my opinion, this is one of the very few Google products that has not been revieed as top-of-top riht after launch. Probably also because of the fact that it entered a very competitive market which is also not Google-core.

Another thing to mention is that the source is open for developers and they plan to work more on it.

Here is a nice look on Google's future plans in the IM industry and all the Skype rumours around it.

VAT increase to 22% certain

2005-08-24T10:22:00.000+03:00

Vice president of the Liberal Party (PNL) Dan Radu Rusanu stated at the National-Liberal Youth Summer Camp on Tuesday, that the increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) from 19% to 22% and the reduction of social contributions were two measures which would certainly apply starting January 1, 2006.

Rusanu added that without the additional revenues from VAT the reduction of social contributions would be impossible.

Rusanu said that the measure is fair, because everybody benefits from the reduction of social contributions while for the VAT increase, only those who bought more paid more VAT.

He also mentioned a proposal by the Conservative Party (PC) for a reduction in VAT for basic products which had been rejected by the coalition on the grounds that such reductions would not be translated to a lower selling price

Why do you read blogs ?

2005-08-22T20:44:00.000+03:00

Why do you read this blog? Why do you read any blog? what kind of blogs do you read?

I would love to hear the answers to these questions from you. Is it because:

- You find newly updated content?
- You like the writing style?
- You find content that other websites would not reveal?
- You are able to interact with the author easier than with regular newspapers / magazines authors ?
- You are able to interact with other readers easier?

Any of the above? all of the above?

Personally, I like blogs with new content, with recommandations and also some of the personal blogs. I like them because they present information in a friendlier manner, you can make pretty fast a good idea if that blog adds value to you and the writing style is much more relaxed and easier to understand.

What about corporate blogs? Well, I like them even more. Because you can find out a lot about a company through its corporate blog. You can actually interact with that company as if it was a person. You can percieve that company as a fellow guy / girl and communicate with it. With him or with her.

I am planning to launch a corporate blog pretty soon and I would greatly appreciate your input into the matter. Also, I would love to help other people launch their corporate blog, so if you are interested, don't hesitate to contact me.

What corporate blogs do you like? Why do you like them? What corporate blogs you dislake and why ?

Thanks for the input. Good night :)

Work and Health

2005-08-22T16:20:00.000+03:00

I am writing on a less than obvious topic, that of the relationship between work and health. To start with, I'm sure nobody reads this text on the TV, so I assume you're in front of a computer. Good, me too. And a lots of other people are, too.
So, given that there's a fair enough chance for one reading this blog to relate to my story, here goes a personal story. I'll try to make it short. I spend too much time in front of the computer, often in (way) sub-optimal positions - from an ergonomics point of view - either working or playing games.
Surely some of us have a keyboard at work or at home that is "anti-RSI". I do. I have even wondered what RSI is and I found it means repetitive strain injury. That, acoording to Wikipedia, is an occupational overuse syndrome affecting muscles, tendons and nerves in the arms and upper back. It occurs when muscles in these areas are kept tense for very long periods of time, due to poor posture and/or repetitive motions. Guess what, it suits me just fine. So when my wrist started to hurt, I had a pretty accurate suspicion as to what it is.
What next?
I cannot substitute professional medical advice and so on, but I'll tell you what I did, and until you seek that help, perhaps you can resort to this.
First: ergonomics. I won't copy paste content here, but you can do a quick search and find out how you should (/should not) sit, keep your arms while working and so on.
Second: medication. If it hurts, don't use pain relievers, use something anti-inflamatory (which really helps the condition).
Third: software. What? Yes, software. The best kind: Free, GNU public license kind of software. Where? http://www.workrave.org It has excellent features, putting it on top of some commercial programs designed for the same purpose.
End of story.
Now, I wish you all the best. I want you to work hard, have no problems and increase GDP. Just in case, though...

Romania has lowest minimum wage in EU

2005-08-22T11:20:00.000+03:00

According to a study by the statistics institute of the European Union, Eurostat, Romania ranks last compared with 18 member states of the EU and two candidate countries (Bulgaria and Turkey).

The minimum wage recorded in Romania in January 2005 was 72 euros, while Bulgarians receive at least 77 euros and Turkish workers 240 euros per month.

The minimum wage is fixed by the government, usually after consultation with social partners, and this is enforced by law.

The Eurostat study establishes Luxembourg as the country with the highest minimum wage; 1,467 euros in January 2005. Second place is held by the Netherlands, with a 1,265 euros minimum wage, and Belgium - 1,210 euros. Of EU member states, the lowest minimum salaries are paid in Latvia - 116 euros, while in Lithuania the minimum wage is 145 euros.

In the USA, the Federal minimum wage is 666 euros ($809.50), though a number of individual States have a higher figure.

The plane - cheaper than the train

2005-08-17T17:50:00.000+03:00

An article in Cotidianul ( website developed by Kondiment Solutions, which makes me very proud :) ) points out that the train tickets are about to be 40% more expensive by 2007.

Making an easy comparison, this would mean that a train ticket from Bucharest to Oradea will cost around 40 EUR, while a plane ticket on the same route costs about 35 EUR (Tarom flights). Even more, the train takes about 10 hours to reach Oradea, while the trip lasts no longer than 40 minutes with the plane.

Looking forward to the day all the major cities in Romania will have an airport, so we can travel faster and in much better conditions. The only inconvenience is that most of the airports are quite far out of the city. But it pays off to take a cab, too.

Romania economy grows 5.9 percent in 2Q

2005-08-16T20:41:00.000+03:00

Romania's economy grew 5.9 percent in the first quarter this year compared with the same period last year, the national statistics office said Tuesday.

The service sector was the country's main economic growth engine main showing a 6.8 percent rise from the same period last year, while industry grew by 5 percent and agriculture by 1.8 percent.

Romania's National Bank Governor - Mugur Isarescu - said the bank expects inflation to drop to 7.5 percent for 2005 and 5 percent for 2006, down from 9.3 percent in 2004.

This plain news made it to most of the major newspapers in the world, from Business Week to Forbes and and MSN Money, which hopefully will improve our image in the international business world.

Investors in Romania - part 2

2005-08-15T17:24:00.000+03:00

I wrote earlier about the Investors moving to Romania....the same article I was writing about is now featured also in Forbes Magazine, presenting Romania in quite a favorable perspective.

I believe it's a positive change from the old - and definitely not-so-true - image of Romania as a country full of gypsies and abandoned children.

Yesterday Realitatea TV featured an interview with a French reporter, working for Associated Press, who is living in Romania for 2 years, and said "I would like to invite 60 million French people here for them to convince themselves Romania is a beautiful and truly European country". Much closer to truth, in my opinion.

In my opinion, most foreigners comming to Romania percive our country better than we are. Is this a fact or is it just my imagination? What do you thing? Are we blinded by the negative images the media is serving us everyday? Have we forgot how to enjoy ourselves?

Dacia to cut almost 1000 jobs

2005-08-12T14:32:00.000+03:00

Just when Logan seemed to be doing well, Dacia is cutting some 1000 jobs (992 by some sources, 950 by others).

It seems the jobs cutting has been agreed with the social parties involved, so we can expect that this move will go along without major protests.

Some of the people who will lose their jobs could be relocated to another plant Renault will build near Colibasi.

Umbrella company to move to Romania?

2005-08-12T10:24:00.000+03:00

I recently wrote about an article that presented Romania as a popular destination for business investments.

It seems that a lot of companies are planning to relocate their business in Romania, due to the low operational costs and the proximity to their office location.

For example, an umbrella manufacturer from UK is planning to move some 40 jobs to Romania. The company is named Hoyland Fox and is considered to be Europe's leading umbrellas manufacturer. The company is originated in the initial firm founded by Samuel Fox, inventor of the paragon rib umbrella back in 1842.

As we have some high rains in Romania in certain seasons, I believe the decision is a smart one. Open up your umbrellas, guys.