Entrepreneurs, however, must have the courage to apply for EU funds, constantly reinvest in their businesses, learn, make a long-term plan to digitalize their businesses to move to next level – these are the most important conclusions of the `Romania 100 de ani de business’ (Romania 100 years of business) conference organized in Oradea by ZF, with support from Banca Transilvania and advisory firm EY.
“I’ve been seeing a question in polls: ‘Do you think Romania is headed in the right direction?’ for almost twenty years since it got my start in business. Half of the Romanians say no. If we take a look, however, we can see Romania has been doing very well in the past few years and narrowed the gap to Western Europe even faster than other countries,” said Alin Merches, founder and CEO of mobile application developer Mobiversal.
“We’re bragging about who’s faster to pack their bags, who leaves and turns the light off. Few people are thinking about how to develop something here. How many of us know that Bihor County ships manufacturing equipment to Tesla? We, however, know Bihor is number one in terms of insolvencies. We can do very good business in Romania, we only need to be much more positive.”
Alex Milcev, partner and head of Tax & Legal with advisory firm EY Romania agrees, and says Romania is headed in the right direction. Besides the economic growth in recent years, he notes the speed at which Romania has been narrowing the gap to other countries in Europe.
“Surely, if we look at the speed of convergence to the European performance, Romania is the champion of Europe. We must be proud of it and use it well.”
As for Oradea, Omer Tetik, Banca Transilvania CEO, says it is one of the few cities not reliant on a single industry and believes that before attracting foreign investment, Romania should develop the local entrepreneur class. Banca Transilvania has recently joined the group of investors in the ROCA platform, which provides assistance to ailing Romanian companies.
“We try to be part of the community, not just be a financial partner for such companies. ROCA is an interesting platform and we want to have more such platforms. We want to give small businesses a chance to develop. We took a major role on the capital market, we want to support this market because it is significant for Romania’s economic development,” Omer Tetik said.
Romanian-owned companies generate about 60% of the more than 26 billion lei (EUR5.6 billion) revenue of the companies in Bihor County. Bihor ranks 12th among Romania’s counties (including Bucharest), with more than RON26 billion revenue. Its more than 25,000 active companies employ over 120,000 people, Trade Registry data show. Bihor is also among the top 15 counties in Romania by GDP, more than RON19 billion.
What are the chances of development for Romanian entrepreneurs?
“To become a leader, you need a strategy and constantly pursue it. It is very important to decide where the resources come from, what resources you have and keep going,” said Florian Peretz, chairman of GEO-BETA Enterprises LLC group with operations in several sectors. The group makes assembly lines among others and works with carmakers like Tesla, Ford, Dacia and Daimler.
“You need to decide on a path, a path you’ll most often have to adjust. You must decide on a plan of action, and the plan can always be changed. If you don’t have any motivation, you won’t get where you want to go. Money is not the motivation, though.”
Ziarul Financiar and the business community in Bihor County also discussed about ideas and solutions of the Romanian economy and society to have a prosperous future. The first edition of the conference series titled `Romania 100 de ani de business. Cum trecem de la idee la business. 100 de idei sa crestem’ (Romania 100 years of business. How to go from idea to business. 100 ideas for growth) took place in Brasov in May. Constanta was the next stop and the ZF tour will continue in the biggest cities of the country this year.(EUR1=RON4.6478)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)