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|  Romania
the awakening giant of Europe |
 Looking for lost prosperity - 1997 : A mixed performance - Rebuilding the Country -
Major Infrastructure Projects March On - The Tough Game - No Pain, No Gain -
The Young Wolves of the Private Sector - What's Next?
 What’s next?
Is Romania going to become a regional economic power, a new frontier for savvy foreign investors? Most people, decisionmakers and business people who started doing business in Romania seem to strongly believe that. Says Daniel Daianu, country’s Minister of Finance: "Romania has a very broad industrial base and very skilled – and cheap!
-- labor force. One cannot talk only about furniture and textiles – that’s ridiculous! How many countries in the world have the ability to build helicopters and cars and ships? We are very inefficient and we have to discard a lot, but the capabilities are actual. What we need is a transfer of new technology, an injection of capital and a good policy. Romania is a country that to a large extent is like an underrated stock. It pays to be here and it pays to buy when it’s cheap. Later on it may be much more difficult."
Mobifon ’s Al Tolstoy is not a newcomer anymore; he has now a good grasp of what doing business in Romania is like: "My message is come see Romania and invest in Romania, however, do your homework! I see the country as a land of opportunity if you are prepared to do things properly with a longer-term view. The more time I spend here, the more opportunities I see."
| Mark Meyer, an attorney at law with Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C., and the Chairman of the Romanian-American Chamber of Commerce agrees: "The idea that -- well, you know, the Romanians, what do they know -- is absolutely false. The fact is that if you take the Romanian workers and you give them a reason to be proud of what they are doing and you train them properly, they can compete with anybody any day. I believe in this country and I believe in its people and I put my money where my mouth is. I would recommend to business people that they listen to the music of George Enescu. Listen to the third Sonata for piano and violin. That’s the Romanian people speaking. I love this country and I learned that all Americans who really come to know Romania feel the same."
The former Romania’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Mircea Ciumara , doesn’t speak too much: "The one who knows something earlier than the others and uses properly this information will win. And the information is that Romania will be the most interesting economic area in Central and Eastern Europe."
Global Business Group is a consulting company that has attracted American business to Romania in excess of $100 million. Says company’s President, Mr. Philip Bloom: "This country is the sleeping giant of Eastern Europe."
"Large birds survey very carefully the land where they are to land
– and big American companies do not make a difference to this rule. Romania is the stabile nucleus, the core of a regional emerging market of 130 to 200 million people and it should be seen as a base for development into adjacent regions. I remember a story that is at the basis of many American movies: a child finds a coin on the street, he picks it up, looks at it very carefully, invests it with wisdom and finally wins. If I would be that child today and I would see, watching the world map, this small spot that is Romania, I would look at it closely and invest here. And I’m sure I would gain," concludes Romania’s President, Emil Constantinescu . |
© World INvestment NEws, 1998.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Romania
published in FORBES
Magazine's enriched with complementary information,
such as full interviews, detailed company files and more.
June 1 st 1998 issue
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