CITY: Photographer Daniel Mordzinski, knows for the many portraits of writers he has taken during his thirty-year career, tells BR about his work, some of which is currently on show at the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest »page 12
ROMANIA’S PREMIER BUSINESS WEEKLY
SIBIU LOCAL INVESTMENT
APRIL 28 - MAY 4, 2014 / VOLUME 18, NUMBER 15
ENJOYING A STRATEGIC POSITION, GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE AND SKILLED WORKFORCE, SIBIU IS MOVING TO SIMPLIFY INVESTMENT PROCEDURES TO ATTRACT MORE BUSINESS » INSIDE INSERT
The authorities are pushing a pilot intended to root out black-market work and tax evasion » page 9
CRACKING DOWN ON INFORMAL LABOR NEWS
NEWS
Ballot break
Terminating taxes
MPs will stay in their constituencies for the next month to work on the political campaign for the European Parliament elections
The government said it has found 70 taxes and charges it could scrap with limited impact on the state budget, to ease the fiscal burden on firms
» page 4
» page 5
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
NEWS 3
NEWS in brief AGRICULTURE Anholt Investment buys 6,000 ha of land in Botosani for EUR 11 million
BANKING CEC Bank to grant SMEs EUR 116 mln of state-backed loans… State-owned CEC Bank has around RON 260 million (EUR 58.1 million) of state guarantees at its disposal for the next two year that can support RON 520 million (EUR 116 million) of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, according to a scheme carried out by the Ministry of Finance , through the National Guarantee Funds for Loans . To date, CEC has granted around RON 2 million (EUR 448,000) of loans to SMEs and is considering additional loans worth RON 4 million (EUR 896,000). SMEs that have been operating for at least three years can take out loans of up to RON 5 million (EUR 1.1 million) from CEC to finance their working capital. The loans have a two-year maturity that can be extended by one year, and the government can guarantee up to 50 percent of the loan value.
… while BCR aims to lends SMEs EUR 117 mln Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), the lender controlled by Austria’s Erste Bank, will provide operating capital credit facilities of up to RON 5 million (EUR 1.1 million) to local small and mediumsized enterprises, as part of a government scheme that guarantees bank loans. The lender aims to provide EUR 117 million worth of loans backed by the government. The government secures up to 50 percent of the overall financing value, but not the interest or commission, while the
Courtesy of Gov.ro
American investment fund Anholt Investment is entering the agriculture industry in Romania by acquiring Agraria Nord and Arland in Botosani in a EUR 11 million deal. The two farms have a total area of 6,000 ha under administration. Agraria Nord, which comprises 5,000 ha, had previously been taken over by Austrian billionaire Gerald Schweighofer, whereas Arland belonged to Danish company Arland Invest APS. Neither Schweighofer nor Arland provided any details on the deal, but zf.ro reported that the Austrian investors would receive EUR 10.5 million from the transaction, while the Danes would part with their operations in Romania for EUR 500,000. Anholt Investment paid on average EUR 1,800 per hectare of land.
‘Ark at him: sailing into troubled waters Prime minister Victor Ponta visited several towns and villages in Teleorman county, southern Romania, that were affected by the floods over Easter. The PM told fellow cabinet members that “we should thank God” that the local consequences of the deluge were less serious than elsewhere in Europe, adding that the local authorities’ “good organization” was a factor, according to Mediafax. loan guarantee premium covers 1.99 percent of the guarantee value annually. Loans will be extended with a threemonth ROBOR interest rate plus a margin of not more than 2.5 percent a year, plus commission of a maximum of 0.7 percent annually. The repayment period is up to 24 months, although this can be extended by 12 months, without exceeding the total duration of the program.
BRD plans 4 percent hike in lending to EUR 6.4 bln this year BRD Groupe Societe Generale is aiming to increase its lending by 4 percent this year, on the back of enhanced demand from the corporate sector. Lending in the retail segment is set to remain subdued, according to this year’s budget, approved by the general shareholders’ meeting late last week. The lender expects to return to the black in 2014, after reporting total losses of RON 716 million (EUR 160 million) in the past two years, due to higher provisioning. The bank’s auditor this year will be Deloitte.
FINANCING Romania gets CHF 2.15 million
from Switzerland to fight money laundering Switzerland will grant non-reimbursable financing of CHF 2.15 million to Romania to assist the latter in the fight against money laundering, writes Agerpres. The grant is part of a program of non-refundable financial assistance worth CHF 181 million (about EUR 150 million). The CHF 20 million Romanian-Swiss program for SMEs, which provides investment loans, was launched in early 2014, as part of this agreement.
IT EUR 17 mln tender for cloud computing platform suspended The National Council for Solving Complaints has suspended the tender initiated by the National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics for the implementation of a cloud computing platform for public institutions, due to a series of flaws in the documentation, according to Hotnews.ro The contract – put at EUR 17 million (RON 76 million) and to be financed from European funds –
covers the acquisition of the hardware and software infrastructure for the project, preparation and management, services for the development and implementation of the cloud computing platform and the training of the staff that will manage the data center and platform. The flaws were pointed out by the company Astra Sisteme Integrate.
TELECOM State-owned Radiocom aims to become telecom player Romania’s national radiocommunications company, Radiocom, is preparing to enter the telecom market by launching a range of integrated communications and television services. “Radiocom must change to provide a complete package of internet, television and telephone services,” said Razvan Cotovelea, minister for the information society, in an interview with Economica.net. According to the minister, by the end of the semester the company’s strategy will be presented to the government, and will also be made public.
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
4 NEWS POLITICS
WEEK AHEAD April 28 Focus on Employment&HR The fifth edition of Business Review’s Focus on Employment&HR takes place at Ramada Plaza. The Romanian government has already negotiated an increase of the gross minimum wage with the International Monetary Fund this year, and the New Salary Law due to come into force in 2014 will also shake up the market. See what other legal changes are in store in the human resources field and hear the experts’ take on these issues. Register for Focus on Employment&HR at business-review.eu or email events@business-review.ro.
Euro election campaign On April 25 the election campaign for MEPs for the new European Parliament kicked off. See businessreview.eu for the full list of Romanian candidates. April 29 EU energy efficiency deadline EU member states have to submit their customized National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) to the Commission by today. A new Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU - EED) has been put in place to pursue the overall objective of reducing the EU’s primary energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020. The NEEAP due in 2014 will be the first report under the EED.
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presidency.ro
Free EU entry for Republic of Moldova citizens The European Parliament has formally adopted a decision to allow Moldovan citizens with biometric passports to travel visa-free in the Schengen zone as of April 28. The decision was signed in Brussels on April 3.
MPs award themselves EU elections holiday
Downtime: MPs want one month off to work on the European Parliament elections
R
omanian MPs last week voted to give themselves a month-long break from debating bills in Parliament and will instead work in their constituencies to prepare for the European Parliament elections on May 25. By-elections will be held in some wards on the same day to fill vacant positions in the Chamber of Deputies. The Liberal Party (PNL) voted against the break, while the right-wing PDL abstained. “We are talking about European elec-
tions, not national ones. As a result there is no justification for MPs in Romania’s Parliament to go on the campaign trail. This is not happening in any other of the 27 states of the EU. It is a peculiar if not stupid reason,” said political analyst Cristian Parvulescu, quoted by radio station RFI Romania. Parvulescu suggested the move could further tarnish the image of Parliament, which is already the least popular institution with Romanians.
Crin Antonescu, PNL president, said Parliament’s decision did not have any justification and was unprecedented. Antonescu, who will run for president in November, noted that MPs took two weeks off in 2012 to work on the parliamentary elections, which was their longest vacation. According to Valeriu Zgonea, president of the Chamber of Deputies, MPs were last week set to debate 200 bills that have rejection reports but needed a final vote. “Romania needs this battle, and it also needs the legal process. As party members, we MPs are obliged to work on campaigns for our political parties, while we are obliged to go to our constituencies each week but also come to Parliament to pass bills. This is why I need to find the (e.n. right) mix,” said Zgonea last week, quoted by Mediafax newswire. Zgonea defended MPs, claiming they were not using the EU Parliament campaign to avoid work and had already passed 39 of the 84 draft bills submitted by the government during this parliamentary session. Turnout at the European elections fell in Romania from 29.5 percent in 2007 to 27.6 percent in 2009 – the second lowest in Europe, just behind Slovakia. The average turnout rate in the EU stood at 43 percent in 2009. ∫ Ovidiu Posirca
R&D
Artificial blood project in Cluj uses crowdfunding to finance research
T
he artificial blood project currently being developed by a team of researchers from the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj is seeking financing via crowdfunding. Romanian researcher Radu SilaghiDumitrescu, associate professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and his team set up a special crowdfunding platform three weeks ago to raise funds for the project, which has already attracted nearly RON 9,000 in donations, according to Digi24.ro. Silaghi-Dumitrescu and his team are working simultaneously on two projects that, if successful, will conclude a research chapter that has been fascinating scientists for decades: synthesizing blood. “There is no doubt that eventually
such a product will be successfully introduced into medical practice. The main obstacles are eliminating the side effects, but with every round of clinical tests – of which the first took place in the 80s – there are fewer and fewer negative results. I think it is unavoidable that, if not us, someone else will eventually put a successful product on the market,” Silaghi-Dumitrescu told BR. One of the projects he and his team are working on involves hemoglobin, while the other involves hemerythrin, a rare protein prelevated from sea worms that live on the beach. So far, approximately RON 1 million was spent on the research between 2007 and 2010, and less between 2010 and
2013, “because we worked with remains from other projects and a lot of volunteering from students,” Silaghi previously told BR. “I estimate that another RON 1 million will be necessary for lab tests on human cells and animals. Regarding the scaling up that will ensue, it is hard to put forward a figure. I have not made the calculations, but it will clearly be much more,” he said. At the end of 2013, the Ministry of Education allocated RON 200,000 to artificial blood research. This March, during the Cluj Innovation Days, education minister Mihnea Costoiu announced that the ministry would earmark an additional RON 400,000 for 2014. ∫ Diana Petrescu
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
NEWS 5
TAXES
Government says it can scrap 70 taxes T
reinvested by companies into equipment such as machines and work installations will be made tax exempt. The measure will be applied by December 2015. The exemption may be calculated quarterly or annually, as applicable, and the amount of profit that qualifies for tax relief will be allocated to the supply of reserves up to the accounting profit at the end of the financial year. Petrescu told BR in an interview last month that the measure would cost the state RON 28 million (EUR 6.2 million) this year, if it is rolled out in July. The tax exemption had been sought by the business community, along with a reduction of social insurance contributions by 5 percentage points for employers and the lowering of VAT on basic food products.
Businesses call for predictable taxation AmCham Romania, the business advocacy group, has presented its tax-related priorities during the first AmCham members’ meeting at large with the minister of finance, held on April 15. In AmCham’s view, the priorities that should be reflected in the tax legislation
plopeanuphoto.ro/AmCham
he Ministry of Finance said last week it has identified 70 taxes and charges that could be scrapped with limited impact on the state budget, in a bid to ease the fiscal burden on companies. It did not provide a timeframe for their removal. Authorities said the move would deprive the state coffers of close to EUR 500,000. “Today we took an important step towards a simplified taxation system, as I promised on the first days of my mandate. We will not stop here and I am working on the instruments to simplify taxation,” said Ioana Petrescu, minister of finance, in a statement. Petrescu, a Harvard alumna appointed to the top job last month, said she would discuss scrapping taxes in various sectors ranging from agriculture and the environment to regional development with the relevant ministers. The prime minister, Victor Ponta, said that another 30-40 taxes could be scrapped, according to Mediafax newswire. He announced in April that the tax exemption on reinvested profit would be rolled out in July. According to a draft bill, the profit
Minister of finance Ioana Petrescu during the AmCham members’ meeting
going forward include maintaining the current flat tax of 16 percent for companies and individuals as a key competitive advantage and the real reform of tax authority ANAF. Companies are waiting for the authorities to finalize the rewriting of the Fiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Code to which AmCham members contributed last year, along with other business advocacy groups. The government should strengthen
and expand tax incentives for activities in IT and research & development, and should put in place aid schemes to boost the creation of new jobs in key sectors. Companies also want modern and simplified tax legislation and are calling for the reduction of taxes that harm the business environment such as the special tax on constructions and the local tax on buildings. ∫ Ovidiu Posirca
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
6 NEWS
WHO’S NEWS BR welcomes information for Who’s News. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Get in touch at simona.bazavan@business-review.ro
Levent Yuksel
has been appointed general manager at PepsiCo for the Greater Balkans and SEE franchise area, a newly established division, which comprises 14 countries, including Romania. The Greater Balkans business units within PepsiCo will be coordinated from Bucharest, where Yuksel will remain. Serhan Celebi, currently senior director, Balkans CFO, will become senior director, Greater Balkans CFO. Yuksel, a Turkey Technical University graduate, has been working for PepsiCo since 1995. Before that, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Istanbul and The Hague.
Giovanni Luca Soma
will join the BRD Societe Generale board of directors for a four-year mandate, in an appointment made during the general shareholders’ meeting last week. BRD requires
BNR approval to make the nomination official. Soma is currently regional director for the lender’s Europe, international bank division and financial services. He started working for SocGen in 2002 as regional director and later became general manager of ALD International. In 2010 he was named manager of SocGen’s consumer loans, operational leasing and fleet management division.
Aurelian Dochia
is the second candidate selected by the BRD Societe Generale shareholders last week to join the board of directors. Dochia is a member in the board of directors at BRD Finance IFN and an associate at local consultancy Concept Consultanta Economica si de Afaceri. He has sat on the board of directors at firms within BRD group, at SIF Muntenia, Fondul Proprietatii de Stat, and at the Romanian Center for Economic Policies (CEROPE).
Horatiu Dan Dumitru
has joined the law firm Bondoc & Asociatii as a managing counsel. Horatiu has been a member of the Bucharest
Bar since 2000 and holds a PhD in Civil Law. Before joining the firm, he was managing associate at Musat & Asociatii. Dumitru’s expertise ranges from IT law, corporate/M&A (including privatizations) to constitutional law, administrative law and legislative process management.
board of directors. Between 2011 and 2014, Bogdan worked as a managing partner for Grapefruit, after previously working for ING (as internet channel development manager), Kanal D, Altex (e-business director) and Zapp (marketing communication specialist).
Ionut Stircu
Giuliano Menassi
has joined Bondoc & Asociatii as a junior associate within the competition and real estate departments. Stircu holds an LLM in Business Law from the Madrid Complutense University. Before joining the firm, he worked for a Big Four company’s affiliated law firm in Romania.
Ana-Maria Bogdan
will be the first general manager for R/GA Romania, part of the Interpublic Group. Her responsibilities will include developing, consolidating and growing the local team. She will also represent the local branch on the R/GA Global
replaces Giuseppe Cangelossi as the CEO of Pirelli Tyres Romania, with the latter taking up a managerial position at Pirelli APAC (Asia Pacific). Menassi will hold onto his position as manufacturing vice-president in the Pirelli Group. At Pirelli Romania his second-in-command will be Ayhan Guven, as deputy country manager and industrial director. Menassi and Guven started working for Pirelli Tyres Romania in 2005.
www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
NEWS 7
Wires crossed over Looking for business infrastructure projects outside Bucharest? for Sibiu INVESTMENT
Next year should see the completion of the Sibiu-Nadlac highway and the start of works on the Pitesti-Sibiu route, both part of the A1 corridor. But judging by the authorities’ contradictory comments, there could be more delays along the road. ∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN
Photo: Silviu Pal
An international business forum will be held in Sibiu this June
T
o find out what the economy looks like outside the capital, BR is launching a series of supplements dedicated to the main development poles around the country. The first issue focuses on Sibiu County. It features interviews with the heads of Sibiu County Council and City Hall and representatives of the local business community, a ranking of the main players in the county based on turnover, facts and figures, and an overview of local tourism. So, why Sibiu? A strategic position in the heart of Romania, good infrastructure access and the promise of further developments in this direction, a skilled workforce, support from the authorities and the local quality of life have persuaded companies active in various industries to invest in Sibiu, BR has learned. Sibiu, the county town and headquarters of the local administration, is today a dynamic and modern city which has established a well rounded identity in Romania and abroad. A cornerstone of the city’s development has been its designation as European Capital of Culture in 2007. The local administration made good use of the funds available for the event and invested in infrastructure works and promotion in Europe and at home. This has benefitted the local tourism industry and the local economy more widely, putting the city on the map for tourists and investors alike. Over the years Sibiu has attracted investors from various industries. German manufactures in particular, especially those active in the automotive sector, have found Sibiu to their liking. The Transylvanian county is today home to players like Continental, Marquardt Schaltsysteme, Takata Sibiu, Kuhnke
Production, Thyssenkrupp Bilstein Compa, Harting Romania Manufacturing, Brandl Ro, Austrian Frauenthal Automotive Sibiu and numerous other smaller investors. Continental’s plant in Sibiu has grown to become the largest business in the county based on turnover in 2012, according to data from the National Trade Register Office. The German manufacturer decided upon Sibiu in 2003 when it was looking to extend its business in Romania with a new electronics factory. “Sibiu was a good option from a logistics perspective and because of the access it provided to the European highway network. It was well positioned for deliveries to southern Germany where most of our clients are (...),” representatives of Continental Automotive Systems told BR. The food and textile industries are also well established in Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, the city’s mayor, told BR. Further investments in these fields are expected, as well as in the service sector, he added. While advantages such as the strategic location, local infrastructure, skilled workforce and the county’s strong German background remain key ingredients in attracting investors, the authorities too have had a role. The opening of a unique county bureau for investments this May to reduce and simplify investment procedures is just one of the initiatives that Sibiu County Council has to attract more investors, council president Ioan Cindrea told BR. Also, in June the authorities will host an international business forum where dozens of ambassadors and economic attaches have been invited to participate to learn of “the numerous business and investment opportunities Sibiu offers,” he added. ∫ Simona Bazavan
Sibiu’s strategic position and the access it provides to the European highway network are the main reasons big investors like automotive manufacturer Continental have chosen to invest there. The county is crossed by the A1 highway, part of the Pan-European transport corridor IV, which when completed will connect Bucharest to Nadlac on Romania’s border with Hungary, and the future A3 highway which will connect Bucharest with the north-west of the country. Sibiu is also connected to Europe via an international airport which last year was used by a total of 222, 827 passengers. Sibiu’s County Council plans to spend one third of its 2014 total budget of about EUR 72 million on development works. “These funds, to which will be added EU money for various projects, will go mainly towards the development of the road infrastructure, the A1 and A3 highways and several county and local roads which we want to complete by 2016,” Ioan Cindrea, president of Sibiu County Council, told BR. The development of Sibiu International Airport, both in terms of passenger traffic and the construction of a cargo terminal, is another target on the local authorities’ agenda. When the A1 is fully completed, Romania’s location will become even more of an asset, but judging by the progress made by the central authorities and politicians’ recent contradictory statements on the matter, the actual completion is still a long way off.
Sibiu-Nadlac highway crawls towards destination The first, second, and fourth segments of the Orastie-Sibiu highway (82 km), part of the A1, were finished in December 2013. The opening of the third segment was delayed after the National Road Company and the contractor, Italian firm Impregilo, failed to reach a technical and financial agreement following mudslides in the area. The minister of transport, Dan Sova, announced in March that the contract would be terminated and the 22km completed in 2015. Just a month later he then said that the contract would not be terminated and the segment would be open
Construction of the Pitesti-Sibiu highway could start next year
to traffic this November at no additional cost. In April Sova told BR that the entire Sibiu-Nadlac segment of the A1 highway (350km) would be finished in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Pitesti-Sibiu highway awaits green light As for the start of works on the PitestiSibiu segment, the only part of the A1 where there has been no progress in recent years, the authorities have been batting the matter back and forth for several months, with claim followed by counterclaim. Last December the highway was taken off the list of priority infrastructure projects Romania plans to build by 2018 due to high construction costs and an out-of-date feasibility study dating back to 2008. However, in March, the Ministry of EU Funds cited the project as a priority in terms of infrastructure projects for which Romania wants to attract EU funds during the 2014-2020 framework. Sova said it would take two years until a new feasibility study is done and works could start no earlier than 2017. He was then contradicted by PM Victor Ponta who said, following a visit to the Dacia factory in Mioveni, that works would start in 2015 and be completed by 2020 or even earlier. Whether works will actually start and finish on time or the project will disappear amid more political infighting remains to be seen. But all stakeholders agree that the completion of the A1 will benefit not only Sibiu, but the entire local economy. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro
www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
EMPLOYMENT 9
Authorities start crackdown on informal labor, move to boost employment In March, the Romanian government pledged to start a series of controls to root out cases of undeclared work and tax evasion, as part of a pilot project. A few days ago, the start of the project was announced for May 1. A state aid framework that will subsidize salaries at firms that generate at least 20 jobs was also adopted.
Romanian authorities recognize informal work as a problem they need to address
∫ OTILIA HARAGA With the stated target of preventing and eradicating undeclared/under-declared labor, supporting good-faith competition in business and protecting employees by enhancing social security, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) will start to rollout the project, based on its commitments to the European Union and the International
Monetary Fund, according to institution officials. The scheme to tackle black market labor, which will start on May 1, will cover a significant share of companies in Ploiesti and Brasov. ANAF has called upon employers to ensure they comply with the stipulations in the Labor Code, Fiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Code within 90 days of the start of the scheme. The controls will target mainly the
companies most prone to avoiding social contributions, health contributions and income taxes. The campaigns from the Labor Inspectorate are “not always well received in the market,” Marilena Balabuti, deputy chief inspector in the Labor Inspection Office (ITM), tells BR, “since the exercising of authority by the state is rejected by those that are subject to it.” Based on the results, ANAF will expand this scheme to the entire country
from January 1, 2015. The issue of informal work is not unknown to Romanian authorities, which recognize it as problem. Companies that are most prone to hiring people without papers are mainly active in construction, services, and trade and security services, Balabuti tells BR. Campaigns to eradicate this phenomenon have been carried out by authorities targeting these categories of firms.
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
10 EMPLOYMENT
3Q Roxana Toader Senior Consultant Ascendis
Which are the advantages of having SHRM certification? There are several. One is that it is internationally recognized and ensures top core knowledge in the HR field. The manuals and training programs are changed yearly, and it fits different HR professionals’ needs. It represents a guarantee for employers that they will get best practices in the field. It is also about belonging to an elite group of HR professionals. Does SHRM certification guarantee the value of an HR professional? The certifications offered by the Society of HR Management (SHRM) give you, your employer, and your clients the certainty that you have the knowledge and skills to perform your job at the highest level. They certify not only for Romanian employers but for international ones that you have mastered your profession, similar to the CFA or ACCA certifications. Such certifications also prove that your knowledge is current, as you have to renew it every three years. Building a salary structure is covered by the SHRM. What are the other subjects and how would you briefly describe them? Building a salary structure is one of the many topics covered by the training we offer for these certifications as well as by the six manuals accompanying the training program and provided by the SHRM. This topic is covered in the fourth manual, Reward Management. In terms of topics, you name it and I bet it is included! Just to mention a few: HR’s Strategic Role; Critical Management Skills for HR Professionals; Managing Technology Trends, Strategic Planning Process and Aligning the HR Function with the Strategic Plan, and Environmental Scanning. All these topics I mention are just from the first module: Business Management and Strategy. raluca.comanescu@business-review.ro
Anca Grigorescu, partner and coordinator of the labor law and benefits department, and Cristina Randjak, senior coordinating attorney at bpv Grigorescu Stefanica, tell BR that under-the-table labor is “a reason for concern” in Romania, since official data show that approximately 1 million people are working on the black market. “Informal work takes place at companies of all sizes. Most undocumented employees work for small companies, but Romania is confronted with undeclared labor even in large companies, with more than 100 employees,” the two attorneys tell BR. The measures taken by the authorities should mainly focus on the reasons why companies hire people without papers. Balabuti thinks that by removing the causes, the effects can also be eradicated. “Work on the black market is the effect of multiple reasons such as taxation, force of habit, workers’ lack of information about the benefits of individual labor contracts, and employers’ fear of assuming the obligations stipulated in such contracts,” she outlines. The labor authorities are also attempting to send warning signals across all channels about the negative effects of informal labor, by looking at the taxation and reducing the red tape in this field, explains Balabuti. Under the Labor Code, an individual labor contract is signed with the consent of both parties. It must be drafted in writing in Romanian, and is the responsibility of the employer. Before the employee starts work, the contract should be registered with the relevant authorities and the employee should receive a copy. Balabuti points out that the Labor Code makes it illegal to employ up to five people without signing individual labor contracts. Penalties range between RON 10,000 and RON 20,000 for each identified informal worker. The bpv Grigorescu Stefanica attorneys questioned by BR say an initiative is underway to modify the Labor Code’s penalties for informal labor. Instead of the above-mentioned fines, the bill aims to impose penalties of RON 5,000, plus the total sum of the taxes and contributions that the employer should have paid over the previous year, had the informal worker been hired legally, on minimum wage. An employer who flouts the law should pay these contributions as well. There is, however, a series of steps that the Romanian authorities could take to tackle the phenomenon of informal labor. Asked by BR, Catalin Micu, managing associate at Zamfirescu Racoti &
Partners, suggests the law could be changed to give tax breaks to employers who hire a minimum number of people, so the taxes payable by the employer would fall, proportionally, as more staff members were taken on. Other measures would be to extend the use of temporary contracts and make it easier for employers to end individual labor contracts unilaterally for economic or operational reasons, with the dismissed employee given several months’ pay in compensation, suggests Micu. To crack down on informal labor and encourage employment, a government plan to subsidize salaries at firms that generate a minimum of 20 jobs was approved last Wednesday. The support will be provided for two years. According to government officials, the new state aid scheme will grant non-reimbursable financing, which will cover salary costs (not exceeding the level of the gross average salary) over a period of two consecutive years, where at least 20 new jobs are created through an initial investment.
The financing agreements through this framework can be issued until the end of 2020, and the de minimis payments will be made over 2015-2025, within the allocated budget. “For companies that create at least 20 jobs, the state will pay half of the total value of salary expenses. We are not talking about reducing taxes or social contribution, but half of everything that is commonly called a salary,” said PM Victor Ponta. The state first announced the measure at the beginning of February. “2014 does not look set be a year of major modifications to the labor legislation. However, there are now several draft bills to modify the Labor Code on the agenda of the two chambers of Parliament. Examples include bills to establish new legal holidays, and to modify individual labor contracts in the public sector, the rights of temporary employees and the maximum length of individual temporary labor contracts, which have been subject to interpretation since 2011,” said Grigorescu and Randjak. otilia.haraga@business-review.ro
Commerce, customer service, IT yield most entry-level jobs l The largest recruitment portal in Romania, eJobs.ro, has an-
nounced that almost 99 percent of the jobs advertised on its portal are seeking IT-literate candidates, namely those proficient in the MS Office package. The site has more than entry-level 4,700 vacancies in commercial domains such as sales, trade and distribution. Moreover 3,800 vacancies are in customer service for speakers of foreign languages. The third most advertised field for entry-level positions is IT, with almost 2,850 vacancies in hardware, software and online. l Furthermore, a study published by the Romanian Agency for Qual-
ity Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) in 2012 found that 80 percent of graduates are working in a different field from their degree, and 75 percent are unhappy in their chosen profession. According to the same study, more than a quarter of young people under 25 are unemployed. l In order to help teenagers choose a career, Samsung Romania is
currently sending its experts around the country to provide 8,000 students with career advice. In collaboration with Dan Petre, coordinator of the platform www.pemeserie.ro, which helps teenagers discover which career would suit them, Samsung will run three types of psychological tests, internationally recognized as relevant to vocational or career orientation. Oana Vasiliu
www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
EMPLOYMENT 11
Renault HR director: ‘Focus now on quality not volume’ With a workforce of approximately 17,000, Renault is one of the country’s main employers. Dana Oprisan, head of human resources at Renault Romania, told BR what drives the company’s training and employment policies. logistics, management and support, on 780 specialty topics. Both new and experienced employees are given training. The former follow a professional integration program at the company, and subsequently specialize in their area of expertise. Employees with significant experience in the group are periodically given training to keep them up to speed with the latest developments in their field or to keep pace with the expansion of the group at international level. The company accords great importance to the quality of its management. To this end, the training provided by Renault Romania improved in 2013 with new programs for managers. This is part of a five-year management training strategy, at all levels. One of the conditions for success on an increasingly competitive market is to identify and develop the managers of tomorrow. With this common goal, Renault Romania and Achieve Global have drafted a project to develop leadership and business skills in people identified as talents.
∫ OTILIA HARAGA Is Renault hiring? How many people does the company employ in Romania right now? Between 2000 and 2013, Renault invested over EUR 2.2 billion in Romania to develop a complete auto chain, from design to engineering, car manufacturing and sales. In parallel with these investments, human resources are indispensable when it comes to new and skilled jobs. At the end of 2013, Renault Romania had approximately 17,000 employees. We expect activity to remain stable in 2014, and the number of employees to be similar to last year. Renault Romania continues its strategy to attract talent. What type of specialists are you seeking right now? While the company previously went through intense development, currently we can say that we are going through a consolidation period. The focus now is on quality rather than volumes, so we are looking for people who are highly skilled in certain fields. We are present at job fairs across the country, on recruitment sites and social networks, with vacancies in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics, telecommunications, road vehicles, and the management and engineering of technological systems. Will you be further developing the R&D team in Romania? The Renault Technologie Roumanie (RTR) teams in Romania are currently made up of 2,300 engineers and technicians, distributed between Bucharest (design), Titu (testing) and Mioveni (industrialization). RTR’s main responsibility is to develop and adjust the entry range for the international level. What other benefits are included in employee packages? In the area of health benefits, as of this year all the approximately 17,000 employees have health insurance. They get free access to a wide range of medical services from one of
the top private clinic networks in Romania. In 2013, Dacia employees received non-salary benefits that cost the company nearly an additional EUR 30 million per year. These include Easter and Christmas bonuses (RON 957 gross and RON 1,006 gross, respectively), RON 60 of gift vouchers for all female employees on March 8, Christmas gift vouchers (RON 60), a profitbased bonus (RON 1,680 gross), holiday bonus (RON 1,341 gross), meal tickets, a free hot meal for operators, subsidized transport, rest and treatment vouchers, various forms of support in the event of a wedding, death, etc. They also get days off paid at basic rate, aside from legal or religious holidays, in the following situations: family events such as the birth of a child, wedding or death, moving house or for blood donations.
The period off varies in these cases between one day (in the event of the death of a grandchild, sibling or parent) and five days (for the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a spouse, child, parent or inlaw). What training do employees undergo at Renault? Renault Romania has invested approximately EUR 36 million in training its employees. The group has created a complex training mechanism: there are two training centers (one in Mioveni and the other in Bucharest), 565 internal trainers with a company background and partnerships with professional training providers around the country. In the past 11 years, company employees have benefitted from 6.5 million training hours in manufacturing, quality, engineering,
To what extent do Romanian employees specialize at foreign subsidiaries? Over 2009-2013, we organized for the employees of Renault Romania a total of 200 international missions to France, Morocco, Russia, India and Algeria. Currently, we have 106 people on international deployments (as expatriates and on long-term assignments). The results have been very positive, as all those posted abroad still work for the group. On this topic, I would also mention the exchange of experience at the level of the Renault Group. Since Romania is the mother country for the international production of the entry-level range, Renault Group employees from various corners of the world where Renault has a presence, such as Morocco, Russia and Algeria, come to Romania to specialize in various activities. otilia.haraga@business-review.ro
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
12 CITY
Write angle: taking portraits of the authors With a confessed passion for literature, Argentinean-born photographer Daniel Mordzinski has been photographing writers for the past 30 years. His pictures come with a trademark: he takes his subjects out of their usual writer’s pose and positions them in unusual settings or stances, which he says is key to capturing an original take of a profession that is often difficult to capture in a still image. essential, that is the individual I have in front of me. Because often the emotion can be paralyzing, as can the technique.
∫ SIMONA FODOR
How do you work? How do you stage a photo? There is no Mordzinski method. Every encounter is like a blank page. When-
Photo: Luis Sepulveda
Mario Vargas Llosa writing by candlelight on the side of a bed, Salman Rushdie inside a bathtub, and Umberto Eco pulling up the straps of his pants are just some of the photographs that can be filed as a “fotinski”, the trademark of the photographer who has earned the good will, acclaim and friendship of many literary greats. While Mordzinski insists that he employs no particular method, he has managed to build an impressive collection of portraits of writers from all over the world. The names often read like a Who’s Who of Spanish-language literature: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Luis Sepúlveda, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez among many others. But it is not just stars he has been photographing. Mordzinski is a regular at literary festivals around the world and has served as the official photographer of the Hay Festival, among other events. The local writers he has added to his collection of literary figures so far are the German-Romanian winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature Herta Muller, whom he photographed in 2013, and novelist, poet and dramatist Dan Lungu, whose portrait he took at Italy’s Torino book fair in 2012. With the photographic territory comes a host of anecdotes on his subjects which he has recounted in various interviews. Before his first photo exhibition in Paris, as a rookie, he left a phone message for Julio Cortázar, whom he did not know, telling him he would be happy if the writer would come to the opening. And Cortázar did. At the 2011 Hay Festival in Wales he captured V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux as they shook hands for the first time after 15 years of enmity.
The final touches: Mordzinski has been photographing writers around the world for the past 30 years
ever I take the photo of a writer the result is the writer as seen by me. When I say “seen by me” I mean the photo is the outcome of my readings, of my disposition, and this is also what allows my work to remain alive. There are no two similar encounters. What it comes down to is many years of experience and a lot of gratitude to journalism. Right now, I’m at a point in my life where I can choose to do the things I like to do. Many times, my journalistic side and my expressive one overlap. I think I owe a lot to journalism
because it left me with a speed of analysis. When I enter a place, I can immediately tell where the light is coming from and what its visual potential is. Of course, I can often be wrong! I also owe to journalism the speed at which I work. The journey I propose to writers is original and fun, one without risks, but above all it is swift because I work very fast. And another important element that journalism taught me is how not to let myself be intimidated. After having photographed so many royals and celebrities I can focus on the
How do you decide if a photo is worth showing? How do you make the selection, both in general, and for this particular exhibition? All selections are arbitrary and incomplete, but you have to make a choice. It has happened, more than once, that I later realized that a photo I had selected was not the best one because I had made the selection in a rush for time or wanting to see the result faster. At times, I exaggerated – for example with my first portrait, which was the one of [Jorge Luis] Borges. I used to take analog photos, and that day I had shot a couple of rolls, from which I chose one photo that hadn’t completely convinced me but I chose it because it was the only one in the series where Borges was alone. For a long time I was bothered by a hand that had entered the frame and twenty years later, perhaps because of my experience, what I had learned traveling and looking, I realized that what was bothering me was what really brought value to the picture. To sum it up, photography does not change; nor do we. As for the selection for Bucharest, the exhibition is an itinerant one. It is a like a diplomatic passport, in the good sense of the word, because this exhibition serves as an ambassador of literature, feelings and passion. It is a passport for a borderless country, which is the Spanish language, and a passport for 35 years of my life as a letraherido [e.n. a person who is very fond of reading and literature]. This exhibition originated in Frankfurt and has toured many Cervantes Institutes around the world. It always has more or less the same format: around 70 portraits, depending on the venue. You can imagine the difficulty I have in choosing, the moment I have to ask: what do I go for: Borges or [Julio] Cortazar? So I always have this dilemma: to offer the most complete aspect of my work and strike a balance between, for instance, Spain and Latin America.
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
CITY 13
Photo: Daniel Mordzinski
The 1978 portrait of Jorge Luis Borges, taken during the filming of the documentary Borges para millones (Borges for Millions), on which Mordzinski was working as second assistant to director Ricardo Wullicher
How would you say your photography has changed over time, if at all? We are the protagonists of our own lives and in this case I find it difficult to talk about a transformation or a period. What I can say is that, as the years go by, my work has gained more freedom because they [the writers] let me do what I like. At the same time, it has also become more committed because I feel grateful for this liberty I have in my work and I’m afraid of letting them down. Before we were talking about formulas or the Mordzinski method. I would say there isn’t any, but what’s important for me is the respect I feel for the authors and that the intelligent humor and the irony never transform into something ridiculous. This I think is fundamental. Has the label “the photographer of writers” changed the way authors relate to you? Before anything else, let’s agree this is not a label I came up with myself. The first time someone brought it up I found it very ostentatious. I swore not to repeat or use it and then, the other day, while trying to answer a question I labeled myself as such because it was
easy, because it had a headline quality and it summed up what was difficult to summarize. And now I use it myself – better like this. Anyhow, I am the photographer of what I consider some of the best literary festivals in the world, which are the Hay Festivals. There are Hay Festivals in many Latin American cities and in Spain but it originated in Wales. Many authors here are international ones, Anglo-Saxon authors, and I realized that they didn’t know me. So it is an exercise in humility and seduction convincing V.S. Naipaul or Ian McEwan to accept my proposal to photograph them without their knowing me or having seen my photos. What did you learn about writers while taking their photos, if such a generalization is possible? I would say they are human beings just like dentists or football players, that they are as fragile as butterflies and that perhaps the profession of writer is maybe the least easy to photograph in the world. Starting from this idea I invented this Mordzinski non-method, which doesn’t exist, but if it did it would consist of taking the writer out
of his or her writer’s pose and proposing a new pose which doesn’t go through the common places or clichés of literature. What is your next photo engagement with a writer? Is there anyone you would like to photograph but have not managed to yet? My schedule is quite full. I would like very much to do a portrait of a writer in Bucharest. From here I’m going to Cadiz to open an exhibition in Andalusia. A week after that I’m travelling to the book fair in Santo Domingo and from there to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, where I will take part in a festival that is called Centroamérica Cuenta.
The fotinski is a fun photograph showing the author outside his or her customary writer’s pose. Mordzinski explains the importance of ensuring the humor or irony that often accompanies these photos never crosses into the ridiculous.
Another term that I ended up adopting is that of the “mapping” I do. And if an atlas is what I’m doing, it is filled with oceans because it is full of absences. The more writers I try to photograph, the more I have to photograph. It would be impossible to take photos of everybody and there are authors I would have liked to photograph but died before I could do so. Not to avoid your question – if there is an author I would like to photograph it is one whom I admire a lot, who lives in my own city and with whom I feel very in tune: it is Milan Kundera. Is there anyone or anything you would never photograph? I have been asked more than once what would be the limit and I think, for example, that it would be a writer that collaborated with the military dictatorship in Argentina or a writer who has been a mouthpiece for whatever regime. But in the end, I tell myself that instead of denying myself the photo I would take a portrait of them and let my feelings on the topic show in the photo.
www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014
14 CITY
Novelist Enrique Vila-Matas, one of the most recognized contemporary Spanish writers
All photos: Daniel Mordzinski
Spaniard Ana Maria Matute became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in 1997 Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who recently passed away, in a 2010 portrait taken at his home in Cartagena de Indias
Credentials
Barcelona-born Enrique de Heriz is credited with coining the term “fotinski”
Ink and Light. A look inside Hispano-American Literature De tinta y luz. Una mirada al alma de las letras hispanoamericanas The exhibition is open from April 16 to May 30. Visiting hours: Monday to Saturday, from 10.00 to 19.00. Instituto Cervantes, 38 Regina Elisabeta Blv.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1960, Mordzinski started working in the national film industry aged 18. In 1982 he began his career as a professional photographer as a correspondent in Israel. He has been living in Paris since 1980 and is currently the correspondent of Spanish newspaper El Pais. The Argentine is an official photographer of several literary events, including the Hay festival, Vivamerica in Madrid and FILBA in Buenos Aires. He photographed Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Lllosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Litera-
He has traveled frequently alongside writer friends to develop common projects, such as Paralelo 42 Sur in Patagonia and El cine del Fin del Mundo in Tierra de Fuego, with Luis Sepulveda; Tras las huellas de los Moriscos in Morocco with José Manuel Fajardo; Yunus, el banquero de los pobres in Bangladesh with Fer-
nando Carvallo and Ruta del mate amargo in Argentina with Mempo Giardinelli. His works have been exhibited in museums across Latin America and at European festivals, and are to be found among some of the most prestigious collections of contemporary photography. Mordzinski made news last year when it was discovered that negatives he had built up over more than 30 years of work had disappeared from his office at the French daily Le Monde after a move. The event caused indignation on social networks and Le Monde and El Pais later issued a statement apologizing for the loss.
what I see. I simply look for his or her complicity, not only in taking the photograph, but also with bringing it to light.
What can and what cannot be shown in a photo? Often my photos unconsciously show things that writers are trying to hide. I’m not doing this on purpose; it’s just how things turn out.
In any case, it all comes out with good faith and, when it happens, what I do is share the photo with the writer, ask for permission to publish it without explaining why I’m asking for it or revealing
simona.fodor@business-review.ro
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ture, at the awards ceremony. Mordzinski’s projects include the exhibition Tierra de palabras (1993) held at both the Centre Pompidou and Maison de l’Ecrivain in Pairs, and La ciudad de las palabras (1996), a photography book on Latin American writers and their relationship with Paris. The book was awarded at the Nantes International Photography Festival.
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