Business Review Issue 3, March - April

INTERVIEW: The local launch of peer-to-peer taxi service Uber was one of the biggest digital events of the spring. Rob Khazzam, international launcher at Uber, told BR how the company came to enter the Romanian market and what its plans are »page 38

ROMANIA’S PREMIER BUSINESS MAGAZINE

MARCH, 2015 / VOLUME 19, ISSUE 3

HEALTHCARE THE PRIVATE MEDICAL SYSTEM LOOKS SET FOR A PERIOD OF RUDE HEALTH, GIVEN THAT AROUND 93 PERCENT OF ROMANIANS HAVE ONLY PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE » PAGE 30

A HELPING HAND

While it is far from a mature market, the Romanian CSR scene has made big steps towards achieving this goal. Both companies and NGOs are involved in long-term programs that aim to meet the real needs of local communities or society as a whole » page 14

REAL ESTATE

INVESTMENT

Green houses

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Sustainability and energy efficiency have become increasingly sought after on the Romanian luxury residential segment, say industry players

Reports of Romania’s anti-corruption fight help improve the country’s reputation, said German and Austrian investors at the latest BR forum

» page 7

» page 39

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

EDITORIAL Anda Sebesi EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Another step towards maturity "Corporate social responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. We do it not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it, but because it is good for our business," said Niall FitzGerald, former CEO at Unilever.

All economic principles say that the main purpose of any business anywhere in the world is to make a profit.

This still applies, but over the decades large companies around the globe have refined their business strategies in order not just to make money for their shareholders, but also to give something back to their stakeholders in the communities where they operate. This became known as Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR for short. Companies abroad consider it a natural step to give something back to the community while many individuals have a strong culture of supporting various causes and getting involved in charitable activities.

It’s no secret that although Romania has grown steadily over the past 20 years, it is still an emerging market, working hard to close the gap with other more developed countries. While in Western nations the CSR concept is widely recognized and used by the majority of companies, in Romania things are different.

But while it is far from a mature market, the Romanian CSR scene is moving towards greater focus and sustainability, and is making great strides on its journey. Both companies and NGOs are getting involved in long-term programs that aim to meet the real needs of local communities or society as whole. Leading firms are investing in building stakeholder trust and simultaneously improving their business performance. They are responding to a new set of ethical values based around the evolving role of companies in society.

CSR has evolved from random community projects to a sustainable business contribution. It has moved from social spending to a holistic approach incorporating ethics, stakeholder dialogue and responsible operations into common business practice. Pundits say that unfortunately 90 percent of the managers in Romania who have heard of CSR see it merely as sponsorships or charity rather than a sustainable management system of organizational activities. But the good news is that the other 10 percent have started to position their organizations alongside their European counterparts in this regard.

An interesting trend now is that SMEs seem to be seeing the benefits of such projects and have recently started to invest in smaller community initiatives.

Although they don’t run projects with national coverage, they still help and change the life of the community they are part of.

At international level, consumers are highly sensitive to social and environmental concerns and companies have actively engaged with them on these issues as consumer awareness grows. They have reached a level where they feel it is natural to ask about a firm’s environmental policies, workers' rights and product safety.

Although Romania is some way away from this approach, specialists say that 2017 will be both a challenge and a tipping point for the local CSR market.

In two years from now non-financial reporting will be mandatory for all companies with over 500 employees. This is likely to mark another step towards maturity for this rapidly developing sector! anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

NEWS 3 Contents 3 6

EDITORIAL REAL ESTATE

Another step towards maturity CRH to become largest local building supplies player following Lafarge takeover 6 Number of deals involving industrial and logistics properties to rise 7 Demand for luxury housing turns green 8 IT&C Local software firms seek international promotion 10 BR AWARDS BR celebrates ten years of excellence in business and publishing 14 COVER STORY Local CSR market, though uneven, moves towards focus and sustainability 29 ENTREPRENEUR Building a business without role models 31 EXTRA FEATURE Private medical chains plan to break new ground this year 34 MEDIA Mobile marketing, ready to rise on the Romanian digital industry 38 Uber: ‘We don’t choose cities, cities choose us’ 39 BR EVENTS Anticorruption fight improves Romania’s image, say Austrian and German investors 41 CULTURE – INTERVIEW At the crossroads of media and culture 42 RESTAURANTS Meat-ing a need: local restaurant scene gets beefed up 43 WELLNESS Spring into sport 44 FILM - INTERVIEW Why Him? Emilian Oprea takes on Romanian tragedy in new political thriller 45 FILM REVIEW Jimmy’s Hall

ISSN No. 1453 - 729X PUBLISHER Bill Avery EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Anda Sebesi DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Bazavan EDITORS AT LARGE Anca Ionita, Simona Fodor JOURNALISTS Otilia Haraga, Tatiana Lazar, Romanita Oprea, Andreea Marinas COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe PHOTO EDITOR Mihai Constantineanu LAYOUT Beatrice Gheorghiu PUBLISHER Bloc Notes Media ADDRESS No. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3 Bucharest, Romania

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George Moise BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Oana Molodoi SALES & EVENTS Ana-Maria Nedelcu, Oana Albu, Valeria Cornean MARKETING Ana-Maria Stanca, Ana Maria Andrei, Anamaria Radu PRODUCTION Dan Mitroi DISTRIBUTION Eugen Musat LANDLINE Editorial: 031.040.09.32 Office: 031.040.09.31 EMAILS editorial@business-review.ro sales@business-review.ro events@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

4 NEWS

NEWSin brief AGRICULTURE Romania sees EUR 514.3 million surplus in agri-food trade in 2014 Romania registered a EUR 514.3 million surplus in agri-food trade last year, up by about 60 percent against the EUR 324.9 million positive balance it had reported at end-2013, according to agriculture and rural development minister Daniel Constantin, cited by Agerpres. In 2014 Romania exported agri-food products worth EUR 5.4 billion, a rise of EUR 311.5 million against the previous year (a 6.1 percent increase), while its imports, worth EUR 4.89 billion, fell by 2.6 percent from 2013.

AUTO New car registrations accelerate by 3.7 pct New car registrations in Romania increased by 3.7 percent in the first two months of this year against the same period of 2014 to 9,094 units, according

to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).

Moreover, Dacia deliveries to EU markets saw a 3.6 percent increase during the analyzed period to 57,106 units and the Romanian brand’s share stood at 3 percent.

More Brits driving Dacias: car registrations up by 18.4 pct in UK New Dacia car registrations rose by 18.4 percent in the UK in the first two months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, with 2,189 vehicles sold, according to the British Association of Car Producers and Dealers (SMMT). The Romanian brand’s market share increased to 0.91 percent in the first two months of this year, from 0.83 percent in the same period of 2013. Overall, the British market saw an 8.3 percent increase in the number of car registrations.

AIRLINES Ovidiu Tender’s Ten Airways enters insolvency Ten Airways, owned by businessman

Ovidiu Tender, has entered voluntary insolvency. The airline has been active since 2010, operating through the charter and wet lease system. In 2013, Ten Airways reported a turnover of RON 43.6 million (EUR 9.8 million), over seven times more than in 2012, when it posted RON 5.9 million (EUR 1.3 million), according to data provided by the Ministry of Finance. However, the carrier’s debts soared from RON 3 million (EUR 675,082) in 2012 to RON 21 million (EUR 4.7 million) last year. At the end of 2013, the company had 120 employees.

ENERGY Chinese resume talks over Cernavoda nuclear plant investment A Chinese delegation was in Romania in early March to discuss a possible investment in the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. According to energy minister Andrei Gerea, the company Candu Canadian has shown interest in this project, and its representatives joined the Chinese negotiation team. The project for reactors 3 and 4 was assessed in October 2014 at EUR 6.45 billion, but the feasibility study will be reviewed. The investor selected for the development of the units is China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).

FMCG GfK: consumers shop more, spend more The average value of a FMCG shopping basket in Romania went up by 2 percent in 2014, y-o-y, according to a GfK study monitoring household consumption.

This increase was fueled by a higher purchasing frequency among Romanian consumers. By comparison, in most European countries, the purchasing frequency is on a downward curve.

MONTH AHEAD MARCH 28

Metro fare increase Subway fares will increase by 16-33 percent. The price for two trips will increase from RON 4 to RON 5 and for 10 trips from RON 15 to RON 20, while for a monthly pass passengers will pay RON 70, up from RON 60 today.

APRIL 1 House calls The draft amendment to the national package of health services and the framework agreement to be concluded between healthcare providers and the National Health Insurance Company sets out that the number of consultations family doctors will be able to perform at patients’ homes can be doubled as of April 1.

APRIL 1 Consumer complaints A European Directive will come into force encouraging consumers and traders to solve litigation related to online purchases through mediation. Romanians who buy damaged products via e-commerce will be obliged to pay RON 150 if they want to file a complaint.

APRIL 6 BR EVENT Business Review organizes the 14th edition of its Tax & Law event for tax and legal professionals. Get up to date with the latest news about taxes and legislation on the Romanian market, discuss key issues with the top experts and discover solutions for your business.

APRIL 13 First fiscal receipts lottery The first fiscal receipts lottery draw to be held in Romania will take place on the second day of Easter, according to a Ministry of Finance draft bill cited by Mediafax news agency. The draw will be held for receipts issued between February 2 and March 28 and the prize fund amounts to RON 1 million.

MOST READ www.business-review.eu

HR

1 EC: Corruption and public pro-

More than 25 percent of local companies plan to hire this year

2 DNA raids CEZ director’s home

Over a quarter of Romanian employers have plans to increase the number of employees in the second quarter, especially in manufacturing, according to a survey conducted by Manpower.

Only 6 percent of bosses are considering a decrease in the workforce, particularly in the energy sector, while over two thirds (67 percent) forecast no changes,

curement fraud remain a challenge for Romania and office

3 Elena Udrea held for 30 days in Gala Bute case

4 Tarom managers resign, future board already set up

5 Asking prices for new Bucharest apartments down by 8.4 pct in February y-o-y

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

found the study.

Bosch to hire 300 specialists for new R&D center in Blaj Bosch Group will open a research-development center for automotive technology in Blaj (Alba County) this year, for which it plans to hire 300 people.

The group has been operating in Blaj since 2007, with two production units for linear technology and one for automotive technology. Currently, the total number of employees is approximately 1,200 but the company wants to increase it to 1,500 by yearend and 2,000 by 2020.

IT Local employees have poorest IT skills in EU Romania needs to bridge the digital divide in terms of its people, as the Romanian labor force has the worst IT skills in Europe, according to the country report for 2015 published by the European Commission (EC), according to ECDL Romania. Currently, approximately 77 percent of Romanian employees lack the necessary IT skills, double the European Union average, which stands at 32 percent, according to the EC’s country report, which also concludes that universities in the country do not prepare their students in accordance with the requirements of the labor market. Romania is also in last place in Europe for investments in research.

REAL ESTATE Adama invests EUR 3 mln in new residential project Real estate developer Adama started works on a new residential project in Bucharest, Evocasa Serenia, in March, following a EUR 3 million investment from company funds. The project is located in the Berceni area and will feature 77 apartments. Works are scheduled for completion within 12 months.

NEPI starts work on Timisoara mall South African investment fund NEPI (New Europe Property Investments) has started works on a mall in Timisoara, western Romania. The project will have a 70,000 sqm GLA and will be anchored by a Carrefour hypermarket. On April 23 NEPI will open the Mega Mall project in Bucharest following an investment estimated at EUR 165 million.

Asking prices for new Bucharest apartments down by 8.4 pct in February y-o-y Bucharest is the only large Romanian city where residential asking prices have continued to drop this year, mainly due to an 8.4 percent decrease in the asking prices of new apartments,

NEWS 5 though the old apartment market reported a slight increase, according to data from real estate platform imobiliare.ro. The average asking price for Bucharest apartments was EUR 1,034 per sqm at the end of February, which was down by 2.3 percent against February 2014 (EUR 1,058 per sqm). Prices dropped by 0.3 percent compared to the previous month.

RETAIL Retail trade volume up by 7.3 pct in January y-o-y Romania is one of the EU member states that registered the highest increases in total retail trade (7.3 percent) in January 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year, along with Luxembourg (10.7 percent), Hungary (8.2 percent) and Poland (7.5 percent), according to Eurostat. The only decreases in retail trade were observed in Finland (1.2 percent) and Belgium (0.3 percent).

TELECOM Telekom Romania to invest EUR 160 mln in network, double 4G coverage Telekom Romania will invest more than EUR 160 million this year in developing its telecommunications infrastructure, the company has announced. Part of the sum will come from the divestment of non-core assets, such as real estate and copper infrastructure. The operator said it would continue the IP migration of current customers, the expansion of fiber optic-based technologies (FTTH/FTTB) and double its 4G coverage by yearend.

Local smartphone market to grow by 30 pct this year The local smartphone market will expand by 30 percent this year to 2.7 million from 2.5 million units sold in 2014, amid the ongoing trend of customer migration from feature phones to smartphones, according to representatives of Samsung Telecom Romania. The first two months of this year have already brought increases of over 30 percent.

Virtual mobile operator Lycamobile enters local market Lycamobile, the largest mobile virtual network operator in the world, has launched operations in Romania, which has become the 18th country in its international network. Over the next year, the operator aims to boost its subscriber base by 25 percent. Romanians can make international calls for 1 eurocent/minute using prepaid SIM cards from Lycamobile. At the moment, there are 12.9 million prepay card users compared to 9.4 million post-pay users in Romania.

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

Silviana Badea is the new head of the capital markets department at JLL Romania. She will coordinate the real estate services firm’s eight current exclusive sales mandates. Badea had worked for the past five years as country manager of Valad in Romania, where she was responsible for the company’s industrial and office assets, following five years with another consultancy company.

ious positions including director of sales and marketing and in early 2013 he was appointed general manager. Before joining Mondelez, Naydenov worked for Wrigley and Strauss.

Vianney du Parc

is the new general manager of Gosselin Mobility Romania. His professional background is in the removals and relocation business targeted at both the corporate and diplomatic markets. Before this appointment Dinu worked for seven years for Interdean Relocation Services, his last position there being corporate account manager. Prior to that he was project team leader & supervisor at GKL Construction Products UK for almost three years.

is the new general manager of Edenred Romania.

He is replacing Pierre Gagnoud who after a twoyear mandate will take over the management of Edenred Spain. Du Parc is a graduate of the Paris Business School and has a post-graduate qualification in finance. He joined the Accor controlling department in 2005 after having previously worked for Deloitte as financial auditor. In 2008 he was appointed financial director of Accor Hotels Eastern Europe and two years later he became the financial controller for Central Europe and Scandinavia at Edenred.

Before coming to Romania du Parc had worked as managing director of Edenred Poland since 2011.

Andrei Jerca

Oana Petrescu

has been appointed head of asset management for the local operations of P3. He has been overseeing the asset management of the 215,000 sqm Europolis Logistic Park that P3 bought in Bucharest in 2014 for the past seven years.

is the new chief executive of the Council of Banking Employers in Romania (CPBR). She is the partner-in-charge of the consulting practice of Deloitte in Romania. Petrescu has worked in the Romanian banking sector for over 20 years as banker, auditor and consultant.

Prior to her position at Deloitte, between 2006 and 2012, she was vice-president and member of the executive board of Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), and, since 2009, she has also served as a member of the board of directors of the Romanian Banking Association (ARB).

Cristinel Dinu

Sebastian Mahu has been appointed by NEPI as center manager of its Promenada mall in Bucharest. He will coordinate the leasing, property and facility activities of the commercial center from April. Mahu is the former head of the property management department at DTZ Echinox. He has a professional background in property management, holding positions over the years from center manager to coordinator of property administration departments.

Ivaylo Naydenov is the new general manager of Mondelez Romania, Bulgaria and the countries from the eastern Adriatic region. He is replacing Gerard Chandran who has left the company. Naydenov joined Mondelez in Bulgaria in 2004. Over the years he has held var-

Raluca Teodorescu has been appointed managing director of communications agency Oxygen.

She joined the firm in 2011 and as senior account manager has coordinated numerous communication campaigns. Teodorescu has over 15 years of professional experience in the field. For 11 years she worked as a reporter and editor.

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

6 ReaL eState

CRH to become largest local building supplies player following Lafarge takeover Irish building supplies group CRH is expected to complete the acquisition of Lafarge Romania’s assets by mid2015 should Holcim and Lafarge push forward with global merger plans. ∫ Simona Bazavan

Courtesy of CRH

News broke on March 17 that the global merger between building supplies giants Holcim and Lafarge was under threat following disagreements over financial terms and the leadership of the future group, according to Bloomberg. However, should the EUR 40 billion deal be sealed, Lafarge and Holcim have agreed to sell global assets worth 6.5 billion (USD 7.4 billion) to CRH in order to obtain regulatory approval in countries where they are both present.

In Romania CRH will take over the assets of Lafarge, a deal which is expected to be completed by the middle of the year, said Costin Borc, CEO of Lafarge Romania, at a press conference at the beginning of March. He refused to comment on how much was paid for Lafarge Romania’s business but said that the company’s local assets had played an important role in CRH’s decision to sign the deal.

As CRH is already present locally with two building supplies companies – Elpreco and Ferrobeton – after the acquisition of Lafarge Romania it will

Firm foundation: CRH could become the biggest local building supplies firm

become the largest building supplies player on the local market, added Borc.

The Irish company will take over all of Lafarge Romania’s assets, including its brand portfolio. The two factories that Lafarge operates locally will not be closed and there will be no layoffs as a direct consequence of the transaction, said the CEO. “The only difference will be that there will be a

new shareholder,” he added.

Lafarge Romania has some 1,000 employees and in addition to two factories in Medgidia and Hoghiz also owns a grinding station, 15 cement stations and four mobile cement stations.

Lafarge Romania increases sales by 2 percent in 2014 Lafarge Romania sold 2 percent more

cement in 2014, below the market’s 5 percent growth, said Borc. 2014 was a “complicated year”, owing both to the announcement of the merger with Holcim and because overall the sector was affected by the slowdown of public infrastructure works. This was a direct consequence of the fact that 2014 was an election year. About 45 percent of Lafarge Romania’s cement volumes are sold through retail networks while the rest goes to industrial users.

However, the company is more optimistic about 2015. “It looks like this will be a better year. Our clients are more optimistic; people are more optimistic,” said the CEO. He expects the market to grow by about 5 percent in 2015, meaning below 8 million tons.

Lafarge Romania’s consolidated turnover stood at around EUR 200 million last year and for this year the firm targets growth of between 5 and 8 percent. Last year’s EBITDA was up by 14 percent. The company also invested EUR 10 million in 2014, about EUR 9 million of which went into a waste co-processing facility in its Medgidia factory. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

number of deals involving industrial and logistics properties set to rise After Czech PointPark Properties (P3) bought the Europolis Logistic Park in Bucharest last year, the local market for industrial and logistics space is expected to see further new entrants, as well as more consolidation over the next couple of years, according to JLL Romania representatives. ∫ Simona Bazavan “There is interest from potential buyers in local industrial and logistics projects, prices are attractive and most importantly there are still good assets on the market to be bought, unlike the situation in the Czech Republic and Poland,” Andrei Vacaru, head of research and consultancy at JLL, told BR. After a boom period between 2006 and 2008, the market is now maturing and entering a phase when some owners are looking to sell, added Cristina Pop, head of the industrial agency at JLL Romania JLL advised P3, which last year bought warehouse assets in Poland

and Romania from CA Immobilien Anlagen AG, including Europolis Logistic Park which with its 215,000 sqm is the largest project of this kind in Bucharest.

Similar transactions, conducted most likely by new entrants but also by a couple of existing players, are expected to take place over the next period, especially as the local market remains fragmented. Unlike the situation on markets such as the Czech Republic or Poland, where up to 40 percent of the stock of modern industrial and logistics space can be owned by a single player, the largest Romanian owner controls some 12 percent of the local stock, said JLL representatives.

“Over the next two years there will

be at least two players that will dominate the local industrial and logistics market,” said Pop. Projects that come with enough land to allow extensions are the most attractive to potential buyers, she added.

Interest in the local industrial and logistics space market is also encouraged by last year’s positive evolution.

Total take-up involving industrial and logistics space increased to 313,000 sqm, out of which net take-up represented slightly above 60 percent, according to JLL data. This was up by more than half on the 205,000 sqm reported in 2013.

This hike was fueled by local manufacturing companies increasing their production capacities as well as new entries on the local market, explained

Pop. The trend is expected to continue in 2015 as well and she forecasts that this year’s gross take-up will reach 400,000 sqm.

As for new investments, this year they will include P3 expanding Europolis by 75,000 sqm and Immofinanz starting a logistics park in Mogosoaia, near Bucharest.

Should demand continue to increase, investments in new projects are also expected to pick up. “Since 2009 there has been almost no significant project developed in Bucharest, unlike the situation on the office and retail segments. Hence the opportunity to move things forward,” said Vacaru. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

ReaL eState-inteRvieW 7

Demand for luxury housing goes green Sustainability and energy efficiency are not only compatible with developing high-end housing, but they have become increasingly more sought after on the local market, Leonidas anastasopoulos, managing partner of local developer Alesonor, tells BR. The company is investing EUR 14 million in a green luxury residential project, Amber Gardens, in northern Bucharest. ∫ Simona Bazavan

Cv Leonidas anastasopoulos

Do you see demand for luxury housing picking up this year?

There has always been demand for luxury housing; it is just that the discussion about what luxury means has shifted. Our previous project before Amber Gardens was a residential building in the Domenii area consisting of 11 luxury apartments. It sold out in a record six months in the middle of the crisis.

So yes, there is demand for luxury and we really believe this market is starting to pick up. Also, I think we will see a lot more new projects being started this year. Not many luxury projects were being developed before so this leaves a lot of space. There will also be an increase in the number of transactions this year.

What does luxury housing mean today on the local residential market?

This is a discussion that we have always had at this company. We have been building luxury apartments on the local market since 2003 and we have constantly tried to push this concept further with every project we’ve developed. What we have seen over the years is that for householders luxury is not about having doors with gold handles; it's about being able to make a house feel like home. And to do that you have to take into consideration all your senses and not just the visual. A luxury green home does exactly this; it addresses all the senses. It involves the smells, the quality of the air, the light, the temperature. All these are things I think make the difference and have become defining factors.

Has the concept of luxury evolved over the past few years?

Absolutely. Back in 2003 luxury meant having a bigger home. If buyers got a generous space that was enough.

Things have evolved since then.

Moreover, clients have more bargaining power and are more demanding as this a buyer’s market. They also want more energy-efficient homes. is reducing energy costs relevant for buyers ready to pay more than eUR 200,000 for a house in your project?

I would say energy efficiency has more than one meaning. One has to do with costs. However, the price of the house is an investment which, if the client decides to sell after 10, 20 years, they will not only recover but will also make a profit. Good quality

means they will spend less on maintenance and refurbishment costs over the years.

We are developing this project which today meets the requirements of the 2020 EU Directive on zero-energy buildings. We have calculated that because of this a family with two small children can save up to EUR 3,000 a year compared to a conventional house.

But this is only the financial aspect.

Our clients understand the concept of sustainability and the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. And Amber Gardens demonstrates that sustainability and luxury are not incompatible: you can have both. Amber Gardens is certified by the Romania Green Building Council and also won first prize at Bucharest’s Annual Architectural Awards in 2013.

Does building a green project cost the developer more?

It is a matter of perspective. We have a very long-term strategy so costs are distributed over a much longer period, which makes them less relevant. We believe we are creating a concept that is very relevant to buyers’ needs and also enables us to differentiate ourselves on the market.

Yes, it would have been cheaper to build this project conventionally.

Higher costs were generated both by research and design, understanding how your house reacts to nature (what we call bioclimatic design), as well as the actual building costs, the quality

of the materials and processes used. It has taken us more than two and half years to reach the project that we have today and we see it as a long-term investment.

With office buildings there is this trend to get a BREAM or LEED certification. Why is this? Because the investors that are building these office projects anticipate that they will sell them and buyers are looking not only at the value of the building but also its running costs. And therefore for them, because they are making this longterm investment, costs become a very relevant subject. If you see your house in the same way then that part should become very relevant too.

How much are you investing in this project?

The total investment is EUR 14 million.

The land cost EUR 5.5 million and has been financed by a bank (editor's note: Alpha Bank). The construction is self-financed. This is why we are phasing out the project. The entire Amber Gardens project will feature a total of 60 luxury green houses. We anticipate it will take three more years to complete.

The land is located in Otopeni-Tunari and was acquired in 2007. We liked the area very much and the city was expanding north as it continues to do today. There were and continue to be infrastructure works in the area like the Piata Presei under-passage. All this creates very good access to the project. Also the land is very close to a forest which is another important

More than 18 years of professional experience in real estate and telecom, both in Romania and Greece.

Anastasopoulos is a founding member and has been managing partner of Alesonor since 2003. The real estate developer has invested in five residential projects in Romania as well as commercial and industrial buildings.

He is also a founding member and managing partner of Cosmos Mobile Group, as of 2005. The company is the largest independent telecommunication network of Cosmote Romania (Telekom), and the largest distributor of Vodafone and Orange, according to its data.

Anastasopoulos holds an MSc. and BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a BSc. in Business Administration from La Verne University Athens Campus. aspect for the project’s concept. People who look for a house outside the city want to live in a healthy environment and to be close to nature.

When did you start the amber Gardens project and how many houses have you sold so far?

We started construction last summer, in July. Right now we have almost six houses completed and we plan to build another 11 this year. As for sales, from the first ten houses we have only three still available. So we have four houses which are not yet built but have been sold.

How much do the houses cost and what is the profile of the buyer you are targeting?

Prices start at EUR 200,000 plus VAT. Most of the houses that we are selling are in the range of EUR 300,000 to EUR 450,000 as most of the buyers choose extra features such an additional room, a swimming pool or a larger garden.

From the beginning we have targeted young families for whom we are looking to create a community, but we also have older buyers. There are both Romanians and expats who pay both cash and by credit. So it is a mix. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

8 IT&C-sOfTware

Local software firms seek international promotion Romanian software companies can promote their services to potential business partners in London as part of the Tech4Export program organized by the Employers’ Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) from May 13-15. The export of local IT and communications services represented 6 percent of GDP last year, according to official data. ∫ OTILIa Haraga The Tech4Export event organized in London is expected to attract at least ten Romanian software companies. The software products and services presented will be mainly tailored for the financial, telecom and retail sectors.

“Constant interaction with local software companies and experience in similar projects developed previously have shown us that an active presence on the international market is essential in growing the visibility of companies and increasing the number and value of projects rolled out by Romanian firms.

ANIS launched Tech4Export last year as a series of projects that should bring Romanian companies closer to potential international clients and we are glad to continue this series with the event organized in London,” said Valerica Dragomir, executive director at ANIS. To organize the delegation, ANIS will be collaborating with Tech UK, an organization that represents technology companies in the United Kingdom, the Romanian Embassy in the United Kingdom and the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce (BRCC).

All interested companies can preregister online for the delegation on the ANIS website until March 25.

The participation fee is EUR 900, plus VAT, for ANIS members and EUR 1,350, plus VAT, for firms that are not part of the association.

The program will include a presentation event hosted by TechUK, individual meetings between companies and potential partners, meetings with organizations that are representative of client industries and a networking event hosted with the help of the Romanian Embassy in London.

“Participant companies need to develop a well-made plan to make the most of this opportunity. The association is putting at their disposal networking and communication options.

It is bringing into one single place a number of interested British companies, but representatives of Romanian IT firms need to set their own targets and make a consistent promotion effort,” Dragomir told Business Review.

According to official statistics, in 2014 the export of local IT and communications services totaled RON 49 bil-

London calling: local software players have the opportunity to promote themselves on the UK market next month

lion, representing 6 percent of Romanian GDP. This program started last year with a pilot event in Vienna in which five Romanian software companies participated. Since firms continue to be interested in this event format as a way to connect with partners from different countries, it was decided the program would continue this year in London in mid-May, Dragomir tells BR. “Depending on the interest of the companies we are working with, we intend to organize another event of this type in fall,” she said. “ANIS members would also like to see events in other countries, especially in Germany, the Northern countries and the United States. We are preparing to organize at least one more event in one of those countries this year.”

Local IT market still not over recession The Romanian IT&C market has still not managed to compensate for the negative impact of the economic crunch that led to a 41 percent decline in turnover between 2008 and 2009, according to an analysis of the sector carried out by ManagerAnticriza.

Between 2008 and 2013, companies in the industry saw an average decline of 15 percent in revenues from the sale

of their products and services.

The local IT&C industry is nevertheless undergoing consolidation due to legal measures to modernize the infrastructure while higher market entry standards are having a negative impact on investments in the sector.

However, the high skills of employees keep the market attractive, especially in the IT sector, according to the same analysis.

In this area, Romania maintains its position as one of the most dynamic providers of hardware and software.

Most of the turnover in the IT field comes from medium-sized enterprises that post between EUR 1 million and EUR 5 million. These companies adapted their business model to the market trends and generated a 3.7 percent annual growth in the sector turnover while their own turnover declined at an annual rate of 11.1 percent.

Similarly, these firms have been creating the most jobs, boosting their teams by 21.9 percent compared to 2008.

However, at the level of the entire IT sector, the number of employees was down by 18.1 percent, according to the ManagerAnticriza analysis.

The reduction of debt in the sector from 75.4 percent in 2008 to 65 percent in 2015 suggests that the sector is re-

turning to normal. However, the growth of long-term debt in the structure of total debt from 13 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2013 reflects that financing via bank loans is still the main choice for the sector.

Across the entire IT&C market, the degree of indebtedness went up by 28.1 percent in 2013 against 2008, mostly under the influence of the growth of the indicator for the telecom sector, where the need to expand and update infrastructure led to a 57.5 percent surge in indebtedness during this interval.

The economic pressures after 2008 when the financial crisis set in were reflected in the falling number of companies that remained active in this field.

While at national level the number of active companies went down by 6.9 percent, the number of IT&C firms on the market fell by 0.5 percent in 2013 compared to 2008, especially due to a 12.6 decline in the telecom sector.

The economic pressures are also obvious in the number of companies that entered insolvency, which went up annually by 65 percent on average between 2008 and 2013. Between 2008 and 2013, 1.6 percent of companies in this sector entered insolvency, according to the ManagerAnticriza analysis. otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

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BR celebrates ten yea in business and publi

The winners take it all: over the past ten years BR has awarded over 120 companies and business professionals for their results and achievements

On March 2, Business Review (BR) celebrated its tenth annual BR Awards gala, an event that was attended by over 200 representatives of the local business community. Recognizing and awarding excellence in business while constantly striving for journalistic excellence in business publishing has been the magazine’s motto for the past decade. ∫ Simona Bazavan Over 600 companies and business professionals have been nominated over the past ten years for the BR Awards, of which 120 have been awarded for their results and achievements. During this time the awards have witnessed profound changes in the local economy, but the search for

excellence in business has remained a constant.

The gala provided a good opportunity to talk about what excellence in business has come to mean today. “I think excellence is not about numbers and not about achieving certain objectives. I think excellence is about delivering value to people,” said Iulian Stanciu, general manager of eMAG.

Steven van Groningen, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank, also stressed that excellence lies beyond the numbers. “I think that in business it is easy to mistake profit for success. Excellence means that you are constantly trying to improve your organization, the processes, the products and the services that you stand for. When you achieve excellence you will also have, of course, good financials, but that is

not a scope in itself,” commented the CEO. “I think excellence in business is first of all about leadership. I think it is about inspiring and motivating employees and also your customers. I think it demands a large element of creativity. The idea for me is not to merely keep a business functioning but to really invent something new, to take a risk and change the world and

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ears of excellence lishing

All photos: Mihai Constantineanu

the product in some way,” added Princess Marina Sturdza.

And while excellence may come in many forms, it is always about overcoming obstacles, no matter how insurmountable they seem. “Our life is too short and I believe it is so beautiful that we don’t have time to waste.

And the meaning of our life is that we have to use it to the maximum,” said Paralympic medalist Eduard Novak, who gave an inspiring speech at the event.

The tenth BR Awards recognized the success and achievement of companies and business professionals in 12 distinct categories. As in the case of previous years, BR ensured integrity, objectivity and transparency throughout the judging process, an

achievement that has grown to become recognized in itself. “I really think these awards have come to mean something that everyone aspires to win,” said Princess Sturdza.

“In my opinion the value of the one who gives an award gives value to the award itself,” added Sotiris Chatzidakis, of CEO Club.

The judging process consisted of two stages – nominations and final voting. As in the past years, the jury was made up of top senior professionals from the business community.

Each member of the jury came with proposals and nominated candidates that met the eligibility requirements.

To ensure the awards were open and inclusive, members of the business community were also able to nomi-

nate their own company, project or was the event’s master of ceremonies. business leader during the online nomination stage. After a shortlist Skanska Property Romania was drawn up, the jury members cast wins the Sustainable Busitheir votes. The winners were chosen ness Practices award based on scores given confidentially “Thank you very much for this award. by each jury member.

It is a pleasure and an honor for us be“Each category has only one winner, cause we are quite new on this market. but from our perspective, after being We hope we will keep the pace with so close to the selection process, all you and that we will deliver even betthe companies and the business per- ter products,” said Anca Raducan, sonalities nominated tonight have project manager at Skanska Property equal rights to be winners,” said Romania.

Catalina Rousseau, president and The company won the award for CEO of BDR Associates and president its Green Court office project in of the jury.

Bucharest. The development boasts The tenth BR Awards gala was held that it generates some 33 percent fiat the Radisson Blu hotel Bucharest. nancial savings due to energy effiColin Lovering, MD of Achieve Inter- ciency, has 40 percent less energy use national and director of the BRCC, than the Romanian energy code, 95

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Photo: Silviu Pal

1. Ravinder Takkar, Vodafone 2. Manuela Furdui, Finexpert 3. Razvan Patrunoiu, Accenture 4. Alina Georgescu, Ymens percent construction waste diverted from landfill and 50 percent less potable water use than a conventional Romanian office building.

The other nominees in this category were: Unilever South Central Europe, Raiffeisen Bank, Brain Institute, Danone and Schneider Electric.

The Sustainable Business Practices award was introduced to recognize the efforts of Romanian or foreign companies doing business locally that have demonstrated a commitment to implementing and following sustainable business practices, explained Lucian Croitoru, senior advisor on monetary policy at the National Bank of Romania, jury member and the person who presented the award.

mega image wins the online Strategy for Business Development award “Thank you very much for this award.

It is an honor to be receiving it and it confirms our commitment to e-commerce. Expanding our operations in the digital sphere has been a first step towards fulfilling a promise to get closer to our customers’ needs and offer a different supermarket experience. We are delighted to see that this first step has been a successful one,” said Irina Fosa, e-commerce manager of Mega Image.

The retailer won for “Supermarket la tine acasa” (www.emag.ro/supermarket), an online shopping platform launched in collaboration with eMAG. In 2014, over 10,000 orders were placed on www.emag.ro/supermarket, about 65 percent from outside Bucharest.

The other nominees in this category were BCR, Lidl, Carrefour and BRD Asigurari.

The Online Strategy for Business Development award recognizes the effective use of the online media for the purposes of business development in all business functions including marketing, sales and operations, said Anda Sebesi, editor-in-chief of Business Review, presenting the award.

Softronic wins the innovation in Technology award

operating between Craiova, Bucharest and Brasov. Our main target in this project was innovation and we tried to implement all the latest technologies in this project,” said Sebastian Ghita, project manager at Softronic.

Hyperion, the project for which Softronic won its award, was developed following a EUR 5 million investment. It was the second train in Europe certified according to ERA Brussels.

The other nominees in this category were Avangate, iRewind and Ubervu.

The Innovation in Technology award recognizes innovation and research-driven strategies developed in and for Romania. The category covers the many developments related to the introduction of new products, services and campaigns, plus the roll-out of research-oriented investments, outlined Razvan Patrunoiu, country manager at Accenture, before handing over the award.

impact Hub Bucharest wins the Best Start-up Supporter award “We are really happy and excited to get this kind of recognition, not so much for our work, but because it is really recognition for all our members, for entrepreneurs,” said Oana Paun, cofounder of Impact Hub. Impact Hub’s community hosts 180-200 members every month, with 500 unique members throughout the year. The concept behind the project is to provide a space with all the tools and trimmings needed to grow and develop innovative ventures.

The other nominees in this category were Banca Transilvania, Connect Hub and Spherik Accelerator.

The Best Start-up Supporter award recognizes companies that have undertaken projects to support the activity and development of start-ups by providing access to resources and services that promote their growth, noted award presenter Manuela Plapcianu, CEO of Artmark.

Raiffeisen Bank wins the Best SmE’s Financing Line Program award

“Hyperion is the first electric low-floor train ever built in Romania and is now “It’s a real pleasure to be on the

podium. Because I’ve been a member of the BR Awards jury for three years and I know that when you are on the podium you really deserve the award you get. So thank you very much for this. I am particularly pleased that we have got an award for SME financing,” said Steven van Groningen, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania.

Raiffeisen Bank won the award for a program entitled “Funding Financial Instrument with Risk Sharing element, co-financing and risk sharing rate of 50 percent provided by the European Investment Fund (EIF) under the JEREMIE initiative”. The second program launched with the EIF, it allowed the bank to support the development of its SME customers, granting them credit facilities at affordable prices and lower collateral requirements.

The other two nominees in this category were Banca Transilvania and CEC Bank.

The Best SME’s Financing Line Program award recognizes bank initiatives directed towards supporting the development of local SMEs and entrepreneurial efforts though various projects introduced and implemented over the past year, outlined jury member and presenter of the award Matei Paun, managing partner at BAC Investment Bank.

ionut Patrahau of Brain institute wins the Honorary Recognition award – Social Entrepreneur of the Year

giving this award it hit a special note for me because one thing some of you may be aware that Vodafone Romania has been doing for a number of years now is a foundation that we’ve run – actually, to be precise, for 17 years: the Vodafone Romania Foundation. One of the biggest programs that we’ve had is about bringing social responsibility and entrepreneurship together through a program called Mobile for Good. We’ve been giving these awards to a number of Romanians and entrepreneurs in Romania for some years and we’ve seen a lot of success. So it’s a great pleasure to be here tonight awarding somebody in the same category,” he commented.

Good.bee Credit iFn wins the Best microfinancing Program award “Thank you very much. I’m very honored, especially in this distinguished group of micro-financing institutions. I have to thank our creative team for the product and special thanks, of course, to our clients to whom we are dedicating our time and our efforts,” said KarlHeinz Fellinger, commercial director at Good.bee Credit IFN. Good.bee Credit IFN won the award for the innovative character of its loans to agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers.

The other nominees in this category were Patria Credit, Agricover Credit and Opportunity Microcredit Romania.

The Best Microfinancing Program Award recognizes initiatives to support the development of local micro-enterprises and entrepreneurial efforts through various financial products introduced and implemented in the previous year, explained Manuela Furdui, managing partner at Finexpert, jury member and presenter of the award.

The Honorary Recognition Award for Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and inspirational leadership, integrity and unselfish service, making significant contributions to the community. This year the award was won by Ionut Patrahau, co-founder of the Brain Institute in Bucharest.

Cemacon wins the Best TurnThe main objective of the Brain In- around Performance award stitute has been to establish a neuro- “Dear guests, I accept this award on besurgery clinic as a not-for-profit half of my company. Many thanks to organization. Later, it grew into a neu- my organization and to my colleagues roscience institute. The institute per- who have a lot of patience and waited formed 450 interventions in 2014, out for the good results,” said Liviu Stoleru, of which 50 were social cases.

CEO of Cemacon.

The award was handed over by Cemacon started a turnaround strategy Ravinder Takkar, CEO of Vodafone Ro- in 20110. Last year it increased its mania. “When I was told I would be turnover by more than 30 percent y-o-

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5. Martin Zmelik, CEZ Romania 6. Catalina Rousseau, BDR Associates 7. Steven Van Groningen, Raiffeisen Bank Romania 8. Princess Marina Sturdza y. Moreover, this year the company decided to reopen its Zalau production facility and increase volumes by 33 percent.

The other nominees were Apulum Alba Iulia, Cris-Tim, Posta Romana, Softelligence and Telekom.

The Best Turnaround Performance award looks at companies that managed to overcome difficult business moments and improve their activity and performance. It considers the quantitative aspects of the turnaround and the strategy employed to achieve those results, said Cristian Sporis, VP at Raiffeisen Bank, jury member and presenter of the award.

Steven van Groningen wins the Honorary Recognition award for outstanding Leadership

ingful award from Business Review magazine and also many thanks to the jury. I remember perfectly how in February 2005, I came to Romania, to Slatina, and there was a large, empty piece of land. Now we produce 27,000 tires a day and we also have 2,500 employees. I also want to thank the company’s employees, who are giving its value, as the value of a company rests in its dedicated and trustable people,” said Ayhan Guven, the company’s general manager.

Pirelli presently employs some 2,500 people in Romania. The company also managed to reduce its employee turnover by an average of 2.7 percent during the 2012-2014 period.

The other nominees in this category were Bosch, Stefanini and Radisson Blu Hotel.

The Best Employment Initiative Award looks at the recruitment policies and training efforts of companies active on the local market, commented Ufuk Tandogan, CEO of Garanti Bank, presenting the award.

The second honorary award was presented by Princess Marina Sturdza. “I don’t think that leadership is ever about Eureka moments or moments when suddenly there is an illumination and you can be a great hero. I actually think that leadership is about the quo- andrei Dunca of LiveRail tidian, the way we handle the everyday wins the Entrepreneur of challenges that any individual or com- the Year award pany must face. It is about the ability to “I want to express credit to my son for translate a vision into reality,” she com- this award and to say that he asked me mented. Talking about the winner, to thank you – all of you – and to asSteven van Groningen, CEO of Raif- sure you that even in San Francisco, feisen Bank, the princess added: “Al- he remains a Romanian businessman,” most every time I have been involved said George Dunca, who picked up the in any major project, be it investment prize on behalf of his son. summits, humanitarian work, building Andrei Dunca has been CTO of Livhospices, supporting the artists of this eRail since 2007, when he co-founded country – almost every time there is the company. LiveRail provides a one person that I have consistently en- suite of online video advertising techcountered and that it has been my priv- nology products and is a leader in the ilege to work with so very often and online video advertising industry. that is Steven van Groningen, who re- The company was acquired by Faceally merits every award he gets or does- book, Inc. in 2014. n’t get and it is truly deserved (…). We The other nominees in this catethank you for an exemplary example.” gory were Dan Isai, CEO & founder of “Thank you very much for your speech SaladBox; Ionut Patrahau, co-founder and for your kind words. But do I de- of the Brain Institute; Teodor Blidarus, serve this? Thank you very, very much. managing partner in strategy & busiAll I’m trying to do is what I’ve always ness development at Softelligence; tried to do: to be the best at what I can Vladimir Oane, Dan Ciotu and Dragos be, at the things that are important to Ilinca, the founders of uberVU; and me,” said the CEO. Ruxandra Hurezeanu of Ivatherm.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Pirelli wins the Best Employ- award recognizes the entrepreneurial efforts and achievements of a local ment initiative award “Thank you very much for this mean- businessperson who has managed to

develop a successful regional or national business looking either at the innovative nature of the business started or the growth parameters and the created value, outlined Alina Georgescu from Ymens, who presented the award.

manian automotive market with a 31.2 percent market share, the largest company in the country (in terms of turnover) and the main exporter (accounting for 8 percent of Romania’s exports).

The other nominees were Ludwik Sobolewski, CEO of the Bucharest Electrica iPo wins the Deal Stock Exchange (BVB); Nicolai Beckers, CEO of Telekom Romania; Steven of the Year award “This was not only the largest IPO in van Groningen, CEO at Raiffeisen Romania but the first to transform a Bank Romania; and Xavier Piesvaux, state-owned company into a private general manager of Mega Image.

The Business Leader of the Year one and we are pretty proud of that,” said Alexandra Borislavschi, manag- Award seeks to recognize remarkable ing director of corporate finance and individual results in a certain industry over the past year or the regovernance at Electrica.

The Electrica IPO was the biggest sult of an initiative taken in the in the history of the Romanian capital previous year, explained Catalina market. Electrica sold 177,188,744 Rousseau, president and CEO of BDR shares and GRDs (about 51 percent of Associates. the total shares after a capital increase) in the IPO which took place Dacia wins the Excellence in between June 16 and 25, 2014, for ap- Business award proximately EUR 444 million.

“Thank you! First the Leader of Year The other deals nominated in this award and now this! And it’s not by category were Getin Holding for buy- chance, because this award actually ing VB Leasing Romania and Poland, recognizes 15 years of hard work by a UniCredit Tiriac Bank for buying RBS dedicated and very large team, 15 Romania, Arbis Capital Partners for years of investment. And what have the Cargus-Urgent Curier deal, we achieved during this time? Dacia uberVU’s acquisition by Hootsuite was just a small local company and Media Inc. and the acquisition of Liv- now it has almost 3 percent of the EueRail by Facebook. ropean market, so it’s in the big The award acknowledges the most league of the automotive industry important business transaction of the and for this award we have to first of previous year. Regardless of the all thank our clients, you – all the peotransaction type, it recognizes the ple here – and we have to thank our deal with the most impact and signifi- partners, our people and the press for cance in 2014 in financial terms making it visible, so thank you Busiand the development of the ness Review,” said Anca Oreviceanu, local economy or a particular industry, communication director of Dacia and explained Dan Pascariu, the Grup Renault Romania. president of the supervisory board of The other nominees in this cateUniCredit. gory were Banca Transilvania, eMAG and Mega Image. nicolas maure, CEo of Dacia, “Congratulations to Business Rewins the Business Leader of view on its ten-year anniversary!

Thank you for an inspiring evening the Year award “Nicolas Maure wants to transmit to with inspiring people and inspiring you that he is very, very honored for stories. I would just like to add that this prize and that he dedicates it to from my point of view excellence is his team management and to his col- not about being the best but about laborators,” said Mihai Acsinte, legal being better every time,” said Martin director of Dacia and Group Renault Zmelik, the CEO of CEZ Romania who handed over the final award of the Romania.

Maure has been at the helm of evening.

Dacia for over two years. The company is currently the leader of the Ro- simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

14 CoveR StoRy-CSR

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

Local CSR market, though uneven, moves towards focus and sustainability While it is far from a mature market, the Romanian corporate social responsibility (CSR) scene has made big steps towards achieving this goal. Both companies and NGOs are involved in long-term programs that aim to meet the real needs of local communities or society as whole.

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Dragos Tuta, founder and managing partner at The CSR Agency

∫ AndA SebeSi The Romanian business community seems to have acknowledged and gradually accepted the need to include social and environmental matters within its business development strategies and operations. Leading companies are investing in building stakeholder trust and simultaneously improving their business performance, say pundits. They are responding to a new set of societal values based around the evolving role of companies in society.

Romanian companies display varied approaches and different levels of maturity related to CSR, observe insiders. “There are companies that have little or no involvement in this area; others are at the beginning of their journey, while an increasing number of companies have a strong CSR culture and well-developed practices. This conclusion is applicable for the entire Romanian business environment, which is heterogeneous on CSR matters, as many companies are still uncertain about the benefits of building a sustainable business,” says Geta Diaconu, sustainability advisory director at KPMG. According to Mona Nicolici, sustainability manager at OMV Petrom, CSR has evolved from random community spending to a sustainable business contribution and has moved from social spending to a holistic approach incorporating ethics, stakeholder dialogue and responsible operations into common business practice. “All these changes are determined by the maturity of the market and increased demand from both investors and the European decisionmakers as they became more and more aware of the importance of CSR.

Tangible proof is that from 2017 nonfinancial reporting will be mandatory for all companies with over 500 employees,” she says.

In addition to large Romanian companies and multinationals that develop and implement CSR projects on a large scale, SMEs seem to be seeing the benefits of such projects and have started lately to invest in smaller community initiatives. “Although they don’t run projects with national coverage, they help and change the life of the community they are part of,” says Angela Galeta, manager of the Vodafone Romania Foundation. She adds that health and volunteering are some of the fields that can absorb funds.

Although more and more companies are investing in CSR projects, the local market is far from mature. “Unfortunately 90 percent of the managers in Romania who have heard of CSR see it as sponsorships or charity rather than the sustainable management system of organizational activities. But the good news is that the other 10 percent have started to rank alongside any other European organizations,” says Dragos Tuta, founder and managing partner at The CSR Agency. At present, more training and education is needed in order for companies’ top management to understand how important CSR is on the long term. “Sustainable development means long-term actions and the way that a company chooses to be part of the community it is active in. If it aims just for profit then there is no need for CSR but charity only. But if it wants both an economic increase and the evolution of the communities and stakeholders then we’re talking about sustainability,” adds Tuta.

Carmen Soare, marketing manager at ING Asigurari de Viata and ING Pen-

Geta Diaconu, sustainability advisory director at KPMG

sii, says that the message society has delivered has generated a change in companies’ strategies. Social responsibility and sustainability have often become primary pillars used by companies to build their long-term development plans. “From the perspective of CSR strategies, projects are targeting mainly social issues instead of supporting specific social cases – a transition from charity to social change,” says Soare.

Today there are more involving activities that have a significant impact on society, meet the needs of the community and offer sustainable solutions. “CSR projects facilitate community empowerment,” says Veronica Dogaru, corporate communications manager at Orange Romania.

She adds that as more people understand what social responsibility is and how a company should behave in the community the demand for such programs will increase proportionally.

Communities count Generally, companies’ primary CSR focus is investing in the communities where they operate, especially promoting volunteering, pro-bono services and providing financial support in areas like education and social support for disadvantaged groups, healthcare, environmental protection, sports and culture. Even though companies are more and more involved in CSR actions, not many of them make these initiatives public in an organized way, as reporting non-financial information is not yet a regulatory requirement in Romania.

“Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines are the most commonly used sustainability reporting guidelines throughout the world and are recognized as a best practice barometer in this area. At the end of 2014 the

number of companies operating in Romania reporting on CSR according to GRI was around 10. This demonstrates that the CSR market and the way firms report on this subject are still in the ‘early development’ phase,” says Diaconu of KPMG. If for local subsidiaries of multinational companies CSR behavior seems to be highly influenced by group culture, practices, and the future outlook on this topic, including perspectives for the stronger integration of CSR into the business strategy, the situation is different for state-owned companies. “The latter, especially those that are listed on the stock exchange, are starting to become aware of the importance of CSR and are beginning their journey towards placing CSR at the core of their business strategy.

However, these companies do not have the benefit of international experience, knowledge and guidance, which are the advantages of being part of a powerful group. Consequently, it is expected that these companies will face more challenges,” says the KPMG representative.

Tuta of The CSR Agency says that many companies still don’t think of long-term projects while NGOs don’t yet have the full capacity to work jointly with organizations. “Sometimes the CSR coordinator is still part of the PR or marketing department instead of reporting directly to the CEO and supervising the CSR activity. In addition there is a need for a greater inclination towards understanding CSR as social responsibility and not as charity,” adds Tuta.

Sponsorship law could come under pressure The New Fiscal Code brings a significant change to the sponsorship law that could represent a major turn-

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16 CoveR StoRy-CSR

Madalina Racovitan, tax partner at KPMG

around for both companies and civil society. It proposes the replacement of fiscal credit for allotted sponsorships (through which companies can redirect 20 percent of their tax on profit towards NGOs) with the deduction of sponsorships from the taxable base and its limitation to EUR 200,000. “The official draft of the new Fiscal Code, as published by the Ministry of Finance, does not include any changes to the current fiscal treatment of sponsorship expenses.

During the technical discussions that took place between officials and business representatives, the need for a reform of the sponsorship law was recognized, so as to modernize some out-of-date definitions and to extend the scope of sponsorship activities that can benefit from tax incentives.

However, such an initiative would be a separate exercise, which needs to be proposed and supported by the lawmaking authorities,” says Madalina Racovitan, tax partner at KPMG. Such drafts often go through many changes by the time they become law.

It is important for the legislator to listen to all the stakeholders in order to have a better, modern, predictable and easy to implement fiscal code, say players. “It seems to me that the EUR 200,000 limitation is both a restrictive measure and an unsustainable limit considering that a company like Petrom for example can direct much more through the 20 percent of its tax on profit to an NGO. I hope it will not remain in this form because it would destroy many NGOs and wouldn’t encourage companies to undertake sponsorships. Many projects would end,” warns Tuta.

Keeping an eye on non-financial reporting Raiffeisen Bank and the Romanian

Center for European Policies (CRPE) announced recently that they would start the consulting process for the transposing of EU Directive 95/2014 on non-financial reporting by companies. The document obliges EU members to adopt new rules through which companies will report issues such as maintaining environment standards, human rights, lapses of integrity and anti-corruption practices.

The first non-financial reports will be

Raluca Kisescu, senior manager of commercial marketing at Avon Romania & Moldova

ciples of the United Nations Organization (ONU) for setting an agenda of corporate sustainability. “I invite all the managers of organizations that want a responsible and flourishing economic environment in Romania.

We will become partners in order to ensure long-term profit for each organization and to ensure the prosperity of the stakeholders we interact with,” says Tuta of The CSR Agency, host of the Global Compact local net-

“Unfortunately 90 percent of the managers in Romania who have heard of CSR see it as sponsorships or charity rather than the sustainable management system of organizational activities. but the good news is that the other 10 percent have started to rank alongside any other european organizations,” Dragos Tuta, founder and managing partner at The CSR Agency

issued by companies from January 1 2016 and at the latest in 2017. In addition a working group will be formed where public authorities, business representatives and members of civil society will be invited to participate so the previsions of the EU Directive benefit from the expertise of all interested parties.

Putting Romania on the Global Compact map The CSR Agency announced recently that the Global Compact Romania network (UNGC) would be launched at the end of April. The local network will put into practice the global prin-

work. “The majority of multinationals that have branches in Romania and are now powering the local economic engine are already signatories of the ten Global Compact principles. We also hope to see more Romanian entrepreneurs that want to contribute to the sustainability of the economy ‘from home’.”At present 18 organizations from Romania are signatories to the ten Global Compact principles, both companies and NGOs. OMV Petrom, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Coca-Cola Hellenic Romania, KMG International, Damen Shipyards Galati, Baneasa Developments, Continental Romania, The CSR Agency, Mai-

MultVerde and the Civil Society Gala Foundation have all announced their support for the launch of the local network.

Local CSR market professionalizes Both companies and NGOs are doing their best to build a mature market that will be capable of facing new professional challenges in the future. In recent years more and more NGOs and companies have started to offer their services to members of the civil society. For example, last year Creionetica, a multimedia agency dedicated to social causes, launched a series of events called “Serile ONG” debating issues about communication for NGOs. In addition, the agency partnered last year with TechSoup and organized a workshop entitled “Alternative Communication for NGOs” and a free webinar about the 2 percent campaign for NGOs – unconventional communication methods.

TechSoup is another NGO that was very active last year in organizing events for NGOs. In partnership with various large IT companies it organized free webinars on various themes such as: how to create a website on a WordPress platform (with the Good Afternoon agency), mobile applications (Simplon Romania and Microsoft), financial education (ING Bank Romania), analyzing, reporting and databases for NGOs (SAP), online security for NGOs (Bitdefender), Office 365 (Microsoft), efficient use of Google Ad Words (Zitec) and image banks (with Dreamstime).

The most recent example is the project launched at the beginning of this year by Bridging The Gap (BTG), an organization created in 2013 to help NGOs obtain resources for their needs. The Bridging the Gap NGO Academy was created in order to pro-

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Radu Cosarca, communications director at Enel Romania

Alexandra Maier, CSR specialist at Avon Romania

their studies and the economic value vide high-quality training workshops tation of a call center for patients with Maier.

According to Raluca Kisescu, sen- of long-term education. The volunfor the Romanian NGO community. cancer. “Last year Avon also supThe academy will share the skills of ported the beneficiaries of Hospice ior manager of commercial marketing teering consultants explained to them the benefits of a well-done job as a expert professionals with organizaprofessional attitude and how they tions who would not normally have should approach their education in access to professional training. The order to be prepared for the future. project was initiated by BTG, the During the 2012-2013 school year, 128 British Embassy in Romania, CMS and BRD consultants contributed to and eLiberare Design. “Our vision is to supported the active education initiacreate a Romania where the needs of tive for more than 2,800 students charitable organizations that have an from 93 educational institutions. impact on society are satisfied by the community they are part of. One of the ways we can do this is to share our danone dairy Romania skills and experience with NGOs that The community involvement strategy don’t have access or the necessary fiof Danone in Romania follows a basic nancial resources to participate in Casa Sperantei Bucharest and Brasov at Avon Romania & Moldova, in 13 principle for the company’s business: professional training. We don’t think (with a donation of USD 30,000), years of social campaigns dedicated responsibility to society and the conthese organizations should be left be- Amazonia Association (with USD to Romanian women, Avon Cosmetics sumer. Education to support a hind because of financial obstacles or 4,000 for the Navigator Patient Pro- has invested USD 2.8 million in proj- healthy diet, sports participation and lack of personnel,” say the BTG repre- gram) and the Regina Maria Founda- ects dedicated to fighting breast can- healthy lifestyle and sustainable agrisentatives. tion Social Polyclinic,” says Alexandra cer and domestic violence. culture by supporting farmers are the In the corporate area, The CSR Maier, CSR specialist at Avon Romafirm’s main strategic fields. For examAgency and Centre for Sustainability nia. ple “O sansa pentru familia ta” is a bRd-Groupe Societe and Excellence (CSE) this month held Elsewhere, through Campania Re- Generale program initiated by Danone with the a specialized training session called spectului, an initiative to combat do- In March last year, Junior Achieve- Heifer foundation, through which the Certified CSR Practitioner (CSR-P). It mestic violence against women, Avon ment Romania and BRD-Groupe Soci- company provides low-income rural was aimed at CSR officials who want made a USD 45,000 donation to the ete Generale launched the second run families with a high-breed cow under to learn and build a successful CSR “1,000 de paturi” program (with the of the school volunteering program, the condition that its first-born calf is strategy and obtain international purpose of supplementing beds in Ro- Educatia iti da valoare!. The project donated to another such family. practitioner certification. manian refuges) and USD 12,000 to an aimed to prevent school dropout na- Launched in 2012, it has had over 500 educational program for young peo- tionwide and to develop the profes- direct beneficiaries and about 7,000 What companies did last year ple aiming to prevent violence in sional skills of students from grades indirect ones. “The program also inteenage couples, called Licee Albastre. seven to ten. They participated in in- cludes an educational component: Avon Cosmetics Romania Avon’s stated global mission is to be- The company also supported the teractive educational activities led by small farmers are trained how to care come a devoted activist for the health Friends for Friends Foundation, put- volunteer consultants from BRD to for, feed and milk cows so the milk is and well-being of women through its ting up USD 20,000 for three awards prepare them for the future chal- in line with European Union quality charitable efforts to eradicate breast to teams of journalists who investi- lenges in their education and careers. standards,” says Luiza Toma, PR cancer and domestic violence. One of gated domestic violence in Romania “We told students that they needed to brand & internal communication company’s projects is Campania pen- and also supported the Super Writing leverage their time in school to the manager at Danone Dairy Romania. tru Sanatatea Sanilor through which Awards. “We also wanted to come maximum in order to gain knowledge, Over EUR 2 million has been invested Avon made two donations of medical closer to Romanian women last year discover their vocations and interest in the program so far and 214 highequipment last year, worth USD by launching the first Avon crowd- fields and prepare for their future ca- breed cows have been given to houseplatform worldwide, reer,” said Flavia Popa, secretary gen- holders in three rural communities: 110,000, to Targu Jiu and Brasov hos- funding pitals. In addition, in partnership with www.doneazacuavon.ro. It finances eral of BRD-Groupe Societe Generale. Zimnicea, Cocorastii Colt and Belin. the MAME Foundation the company cases proposed by Romanian NGOs The 2014 program aimed to involve at “In Zimnicea the project was extended, initiated the Planeta Roz project, in- that need support to combat breast least 5,000 students who were taught generating a sustainable model for vesting USD 20,000 in the implemen- cancer or domestic violence,” says about the importance of continuing the production of European quality

“From the perspective of CSR strategies, projects are targeting mainly social issues instead of supporting specific social cases – a transition from charity to social change,” Carmen Soare, marketing manager at ING Asigurari de Viata and ING Pensii

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18 CoveR StoRy-CSR

Carmen Soare, marketing manager at ING Asigurari de Viata and ING Pensii

milk intended to support the future development of the community. In addition householders got and jointly used high-performing equipment that ensures the quality of the milk,” says Toma.

Cupa Hagi Danone, another project supported by the company, is the biggest football competition for Romanian 10- and 12-year-olds. “The goal is to encourage kids to adopt a healthy lifestyle through sports and a balanced diet and also to help them to fulfill their dream of becoming talented footballers,” adds Toma. Constanta, Craiova, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Piatra-Neamt, Alba-Iulia, Ploiesti and Bucharest hosted the regional phases of the competition last year. Danone Romania has invested over RON 7 million in this competition so far. “In addition to these projects we make donations to many child protection organizations and residential homes as well as other projects, worth more than RON 1 million annually,” concludes Toma.

enel Romania 2014 brought the continuation of Enel’s traditional CSR projects and the start of new projects with an impact on society. In the charitable field, Enel Cuore and Enel Romania financed the first day center for children with Dravet's syndrome and other rare epilepsies. Called “There is Hope”, it is the first unit in Romania for preschoolers with epilepsy. Enel also supported the Christmas Tree Festival through a major donation to educational programs by the Save the Children Foundation, which reach 2,500 children in disadvantaged local communities. Moreover, the firm supported the Unicef Gala organized on the occasion of the International Day of Children's Rights to help fund proj-

ects for children from disadvantaged families around the country.

Regarding investment in the community, Colibasi village, in Giurgiu County, joined the Romanian towns and villages that exclusively use energy-saving light bulbs. “In the four years since the start of this project, which aims to promote energy efficiency, the number of households

Veronica Dogaru, corporate communications manager at Orange Romania

became canvases for urban art, transformed from simple gray buildings into true urban paintings that make their surroundings more beautiful, but at the same time tell their story, helping to promote culture and urban art,” adds Cosarca.

The 2014 program ended with the painting of six substations in Bucharest, Constanta and Timisoara,

“Global Reporting initiative (GRi) Guidelines are the most commonly used sustainability reporting guidelines throughout the world and are recognized as a best practice barometer in this area. At the end of 2014 the number of companies operating in Romania reporting on CSR according to GRi was around 10. this demonstrates that the CSR market and the way firms report on this subject are still in the ‘early development’ phase,” Geta Diaconu, sustainability advisory director at KPMG using only energy-saving light bulbs whose themes were tennis, Romanian reached about 5,200,” says Radu aviation, the young, castles in RomaCosarca, communications director at nia (Bucharest), Navy Day (Constanta) Enel Romania. The 2014 program and 130 years since the inauguration reached an estimated 3,000 benefici- of electric street lighting in Timisoara. aries in 1,300 households, who, by “Moreover, our company supported using energy-saving light bulbs, could the Princess Margareta of Romania Foundation’s 2014 ‘Young Talents’ save about RON 100,000 annually.

Among the 2014 projects with a so- program, which supports and procial impact, Enel supported the motes talented young artists from Stradivarius Tour, whose revenues low-income families who cannot afare also donated to a charitable foun- ford to cultivate their talent. The dation, and the “City of Energy” proj- global education competition Play ect aimed at transforming cities. “In Energy also continued in 2014,” adds the four years since the launch of City the Enel representative.

The theme of Play Energy 2014 of Energy, over 20 Enel substations in Bucharest, Constanta and Timisoara was “A journey into the world of en-

ergy.” Teachers received educational kits to explore with their students topics concerning the current energy system, to learn more about technology, science and the history of the energy sector. In 2014 the project involved around 800 schools in Romania and 9,000 students, with 420 projects submitted for the competition.

In the sports field, Enel staged an exhibition game within last year’s BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. The exhibition match has become a tradition at the tournament and each year attracts around 4,500 spectators, of a total of 35,000 for the entire tournament in the capital.

In the environmental sector, last year Enel organized an event in partnership with the MaiMult Verde Association as part of the Mega Tree project. With the help of the association’s volunteers and Enel employees, 8,000 trees were planted in 2014 to make a total of 13,000 in the three years of the program. “Mega Tree is a project that was born in November 2012, when the company, in partnership with MaiMultVerde, committed to plant a tree for every 10 MWh of green energy consumed by its customers,” says Cosarca. According to him, through both directly developed projects and the Enel Cuore Foundation, the firm has so far invested over EUR 3 million in local educational projects, charity, culture, sports, protection of the disadvantaged and the renovation of hospitals.

Heineken Romania By 2014, Heineken Romania had invested over RON 1.3 million in local communities through the four Heineken pentru Comunitati programs developed in partnership with the CSR Nest Association. The initia-

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CoveR StoRy-CSR 19

AdveRtoRiAL

Social causes dedicated to Romanian women the company for women

companies that are involved in social projects, but also numerous public figures.

Organized as a conference with awarding gala, the event promotes self-respect, beauty, health and women’s rights. CSR4WOMEN is a national recognition of the campaigns, projects and figures that are near women and truly support them.

The most popular cosmetics brand among the Romanian women, AVON, due to the 13 years of social campaigns, also became the most appreciated one when it comes to the involvement in projects that support women. ‚The pink ribbon brand’ – the association with the two social causes (Breast Cancer Crusade and The Campaign against Domestic Violence) is determined by the continuous involvement of the company in the two causes that continue to affect more and more women every day.

Support for local communities

‘AVON is the company about women and for women. We are near them in their happy moments, and also in their hard ones. Through dedicated campaigns, for 13 years we have been fighting breast cancer and domestic violence (7 years).

Starting 2014, we have chosen to move forward and developed the first AVON crowdfunding platform worldwide, www.doneazacuavon.ro.’

Răzvan Dirațian, General Manager Avon România & Republica Moldova

Main cause of death among Romanian women Every year, approximatively 6.000 women in Romania develop breast cancer and almost half of them lose this battle, the main cause being late detection of the disease.

Since 2002, through The Breast Cancer Crusade (Campania pentru Sănătatea Sânilor), Avon fights against breast cancer in order to find that our mothers, sisters and friends are healthy. Through the campaign, 80% of the female population living in Romania has been educated regarding early detection of breast cancer and 2,8 million $ have been donated to 8 oncological centers in the country.

In 2014, Avon invested 100.000$ to equip the county hospitals of Brașov and Tg.Jiu with medical devices that help early detection of the breast cancer, a disease that can be treated and even cured if it is discovered on time (detected in stage 0 or 1, it can be 94% healed). This is the reason why, in 2014, the Pink Caravan, an annual awareness event reached 3 cities filled with history: Tg.Jiu, Brașov and Sighișoara, inspiring participants to enter in the fight against breast cancer and to fundraise along with the organizers.

Speak out against domestic violence In Romania, every 30 seconds, a woman is victim of the domestic violence. Given the preconceptions around this phenomena in Romania (‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’, ‘It’s their family, not yours, mind your own business’), people do not report the abuse, therefore the real number of domestic violence cases is unknown even to the authorities. Still, the WAVE Country Report states that the available places in domestic violence shelters in Romania are 6 times lower than the European standard (1 in 10.000 inhabitants).

To help bring this issue out of the shadows, Avon launched in 2008, Speak Out Against Domestic Violence, an initiative to build awareness, educate, and improve prevention and offer a real chance to potential or actual victims of domestic violence who want to start a new life, in dignity.

In 7 years of campaign, psychologists, social workers and maternal assistants have been trained to recognize, manage and advise women and children, who face domestic violence in

their families. The fundraising campaign, 1000 beds, came as a response to the need of increase the available places in shelters.

In addition, the company is investing in the prevention of the phenomena. In 2014, Licee Albastre program engaged 1200 scholars who participated in the seminars held by psychologists along with the AVON social campaign ambassador, Cornel Ilie (VUNK) and learned about the different types of abuse and how could they protect themselves or their dear ones. Due to the partnership with Friends for Friends Foundation, the company offers Superscrieri Scholarships to journalists who choose to write responsible investigations that not only identity problems, offer solutions, but first and most important, follows a documentation that respects the victim and does not cause her an additional abuse.

CSR4WoMen The first Romanian event dedicated exclusively to social campaigns for women has been launched by AVON in 2013 and gets together Corporate Social Responsibility specialists of the

In the 13 years of social campaign, the need of helping women from small communities appeared more and more often. That is why, in 2014 the company launched the first AVON crowdfunding platform worldwide, www.doneazacuavon.ro.

Through this platform, individual and small projects of the Romanian NGOs are supported by the Representatives and Avon Clients who can chose to whom they want to make the donation. ‘For using the platform, the donors must follow three simple steps: enter the platform, write a project or support one of the existing ones, purchase a social product from a Avon Representative or through the online shop and enter the donation code marked on the package’, said Raluca Kișescu, Senior Manager Commercial Marketing, Avon România & Republica Moldova.

About Avon AVON Cosmetics Romania is the leader on the beauty market in Romania since 2002, maintaining this position ever since. The company wants to offer independence to women, even if this means financial independence, health or a life lived in dignity.

Through Breast Cancer Crusade and Speak Out Against Domestic Violence Campaign, the company fights with breast cancer and domestic violence, supporting programs that educate Romanian women and procuring medical equipment to assure high quality care of the patients diagnosed with breast cancer.

For more information, please access the websites of AVON CSR campaigns: www.avoncampaniisociale.ro www.facebook.com/StopCancerLaSan www.facebook.com/CampaniaRespectului www.doneazacuavon.ro

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20 CoveR StoRy-CSR

Luiza Toma, PR brand & internal communication manager at Danone Dairy Romania

tive is intended to support and develop local communities in the four cities where Heineken has breweries (Constanta, Craiova, Miercurea Ciuc and Targu Mures) and aims to make a positive contribution to society and the environment. In the first three programs, the company invested over RON 1 million in 20 local community projects that had over 287,000 beneficiaries and involved more than 800 volunteers. “I strongly believe that we have the mission to support the communities where we operate, by responding actively to their needs. To build a sustainable business means to give something back to the community that hosts you and allows you to develop,” says Onno Rombouts, managing director at Heineken Romania.

The brewer also focuses on supporting occupational high schools through one of its brands, Bucegi, investing about RON 300,000 in three high schools that educate workers and trades people last year. The sum was used to equip practical laboratories. A competition called Meserii pentru Romania was launched by the Bucegi brand in partnership with Junior Achievement. A hundred and one post high schools and training colleges specialized in fields such as retail, food industry, soldering, telecommunications, forestry and fashion design entered the competition last year. “In 2014 we took the first step in the ‘Meserii pentru Romania’ program. For starters, the campaign addressed post high schools because we were led there by the ‘Meserii pentru Romania’ study commissioned by Bucegi. We saw that more than half of the young people were interested in ‘blue collar’ jobs and I think that school is the best place to learn such an occupation.

However, these occupations don’t get

their due respect. Through this program we wanted to help schools to better educate future workers and help Romanians to regain respect in their occupations and be aware of

Mona Nicolici, sustainability manager at OMV Petrom

vests in financial education programs and supports access to education for children from disadvantaged families and communities. ING Asigurari de Viata has rolled out campaigns and

“CSR has evolved from random community spending to a sustainable business contribution and has moved from social spending to a holistic approach incorporating ethics, stakeholder dialogue and responsible operations into common business practice,” Mona Nicolici, sustainability manager at OMV Petrom

pentru sanatatea sanului (initiated by the MAME Association), projects also developed in 2014, are part of this pillar.

As for environmental projects, ING Asigurari de Viata continued Biciclete cu cravate and Paperless last year.

“Through Paperless we want to give our customers easier access to information and allow them to contribute with us to a reduction in paper use. A hundred ING Asigurari de Viata employees and volunteers from MaiMultVerde planted 5,000 oak seeds in Comana Natural Park,” adds Soare.

Since 2009 the company has invested about EUR 1 million in CSR projects.

KFC Romania their value,” says Narcis Horhoianu, marketing director at Heineken Romania.

Last but not least the Ciuc brand and the Alliance Against Alcoholism and Addiction (ALIAT) continued last year to promote the responsible consumption of alcohol among participants in festivals, launching the second Harm Reduction program at Padina Fest 2014. “Through the Harm Reduction program Ciuc and ALIAT intend to show people that they can enjoy more of their preferred music, a festival or a party if they choose to consume responsible. We want to underline the importance of keeping control and moderate consumption as a habit,” said Andrea Veress, group brand manager of global and premium brands at Heineken Romania, last year.

inG Asigurari de viata ING Asigurari de Viata focuses its CSR strategy on three significant pillars: education, life chances and environmental protection. The company in-

developed tools to help people understand the goal and benefits of life insurance or private pensions and the products’ relation to their own financial future. “Through programs that facilitate access to education we aim on the long term to improve the employment prospects of future generations. This helps ensure the continuity of contributions to public systems,” says Carmen Soare, marketing manager at ING Asigurari de Viata and ING Pensii.

In the life insurance industry life expectation is a constant focus. This was why the insurer included life chances in its CSR strategy. “We always get involved in projects that aim to increase life chances or save lives,” adds Soare. She notes that Sansa la viata was the main part of the company’s CSR actions last year. Lectia de prim ajutor (launched with SMURD and the MaiMult Verde Association three years ago), Alearga pentru copiii bolnavi de inima alaturi de Paul Dicu (with Inima Copiilor Association) and Planeta Roz – Suport si consiliere

KFC Romania started its collaboration with SOS Satele Copiilor last year when the company financially supported the educational activities of children from a house it sponsored.

This year the company came up with the “Bucket de bine” campaign through which it will pay the annual costs of a family from SOS Satele Copiilor Bucuresti. Between March 1 and December 31 RON 1 from the price of each “Bucket de bine” bought by customers will go the sponsored family, formed of five children between 7 and 11 who are cared for by a foster parent. “This year we decided to get involved totally, ‘adopting’ a family for Satul SOS Bucuresti. We want them to benefit from the best conditions in order to develop harmoniously. We gave Buketul de bine double value: meeting children’s needs and giving our customers honest advice from a child who is probably too wise for his or her age,” says Monica Eftimie, chief marketing officer at KFC.

KMG international

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015 Last year KMG International (formerly Rompetrol Group) launched its sixth national CSR program Impreuna pentru fiecare to develop local communities. As in previous years, the company financed several types of project: those enhancing medical services units and the environment (up to RON 45,000); innovative projects (up to RON 100,000) and health and environmental education (up to RON 15,000). Following the evaluation process 14 community projects from Romania and the Republic of Moldova were selected and benefited from a total USD 225,000. The program was launched for the first time in the Republic of Moldova last year with an environmental project in Vorniceni. “Beyond the impressive fig-

CoveR StoRy-CSR 21 ures – 300,000 beneficiaries, over 2,500 volunteers and USD 1.5 million of direct investment – we are glad that the number and quality of the projects increases from one year to the next. In addition, members of the community have managed to positively change society through partnerships with local players and the company,” says Azamat Zhangulov, senior vice-president of KMG International. The national program Impreuna pentru Fiecare was launched in 2009 as part of the CSR platform Energia vine din suflet. Over 2009-2013, 1,433 projects entered the competition and the company invested USD 1.5 million in the implementation of 101 community initiatives in all re-

Sustainability reporting across Europe and the USA

l UK: Quoted companies are required to produce a strategic report which includes information on annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, diversity and human rights under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic and Directors’ Reports) Regulations 2013. l eU: The EU has recently introduced new reporting requirements for large companies and listed companies operating in the extractive industries under the EU Transparency Directive. Specifically, the Directive requires companies to report the payments they make to governments in relation to their extraction activities. l eU: The EC Directive on Disclosure of Non-Financial and Diversity Information (2013) aims to increase EU companies’ transparency and performance on environmental and social matters. These will require the disclosure of material environmental, social and employee-related matters, including human rights and anti-bribery and corruption. This will impact certain large and public-interest companies (approximately 6,000 companies in the EU). l France: Under Article 225 of French Law Grenelle II (July 2010), listed companies on the French stock exchanges are required to publish a range of social, environmental and governance information listed in the decree and have this data verified by an independent third party. l USA: In 2010, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued Interpretive Guidance on Disclosure Related to Business or Legal Developments Regarding Climate Change. This provides guidance on disclosure rules that may require a company to disclose the impact that business or legal developments related to climate change may have on its business. l Sweden: Companies administered (i.e. wholly or partly owned) by the Swedish government have been required to present a GRI-compliant sustainability report annually since 2009. l denmark: In 2008, Denmark introduced regulation requiring all large businesses to report on their CSR activities i.e. existence and implementation of policies, evaluation of the impact of initiatives and future initiatives. Two topics – human rights and climate change – must be included in reporting regardless of whether they are included in disclosed policies. l norway: Since 1998, Norwegian-registered companies have been required to disclose their environmental impact and mitigation activities.

Since April 2013, all large companies are required to report on how they integrate sustainability into their business strategies. Companies that issue reports that comply with UN Global Compact or GRI standards are exempt from this requirement.

Source: Sustainability Reporting Tips 2014-2015, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Angela Galeta, manager of the Vodafone Romania Foundation

gions of Romania. Since 2009 group investments in CSR projects and programs have exceeded USD 8 million.

oMv Petrom Mona Nicolici, sustainability manager at OMV Petrom, says that the company’s major focus last year was engaging with the partners and stakeholders who contributed to its success, sharing experiences, discussing lessons learned and designing future plans. The company recognized about 200 stakeholders for their exceptional contribution to the development of communities at ten galas organized in its focus operational areas, attended by over 1,400 people.

“Our main goal in 2014, as part of our sustainability strategy, was to give people the skills they need to develop as involved and responsible citizens and, most important, to be competitive on the job market,” says Nicolici.

According to her, over 58,000 people attended various educational initiatives, out of whom over 400 were granted official qualifications or scholarships.

Andrei’s Country (taraluiandrei.ro) continued to be the main platform for OMV Petrom’s community development efforts. “We focused on developing the entrepreneurial skills of pupils, students and adults and giving them both the know-how and the financial support to implement solutions to bring not only economic, but also social added-value to local communities,” she says. Within the program ten ideas were transformed into operational social businesses through extensive capacity building and nonrefundable start-up grants of EUR 350,000. By the end of 2014, the ten winning entrepreneurs and NGOs had created 35 job opportunities and supply chains that generated income for over 130 people. “In terms of social

impact, what is even more meaningful is that some of their earnings go on addressing specific social local issues,” says the OMV Petrom representative.

The company also continued to encourage sustainable ideas, giving 32 community projects over EUR 250,000 (through the Ideas from Andrei’s Country and Andrei’s School competitions).

“In our operational communities we developed and supported nine local NGOs that work as a dialogue platform for local authorities, company representatives and community members with the major goal of identifying solutions for local development,” says Nicolici.

Volunteerism also helped strengthen the organizational culture in terms of responsible business behavior and maximizing social impact through the direct involvement of the firm’s employees. In 2014 the company’s programs attracted about 3,000 volunteers, out of whom about half were employees. Since 2007, OMV Petrom has allocated over EUR 40 million to social responsibility initiatives.

orange Romania Last year was one of the most active for Orange Romania for community projects. The company developed projects under the four pillars of its CSR strategy: community involvement, digital inclusion, environmental protection and children’s online safety. “We are involved in the community by boosting civic spirit through volunteering. We are committed to offering our stakeholders digital educational programs to get them used to new technological trends in society. We also encourage both employees and customers to be aware of and measure their impact on the environment. Last but not least

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we offer children the tools for a better, safer and healthier digital environment according to their needs,” says Veronica Dogaru, corporate communications manager at Orange Romania.

The company develops projects for students of various ages, and recently launched “#parintilascoala”, a digital education program for parents.

Last year it launched SuperCoder programming workshops for 40 kids aged 10-13, mostly from disadvantaged families. It also continued its digital accessibility program with sessions for high school students as part of the 4G Discovery Tour Caravan.

Participants could test new technology in a specially equipped vehicle and see how mobile telephony has evolved.

“In addition to the digital education that we give high school students we also have career orientation programs for them, from mentoring in our company to explaining their career path if they go to a technical or humanistic faculty. Fifty students from three high schools in Bucharest were involved in Junior Orange First Step last year,” says Dogaru. She adds that the majority of the projects that the company runs for university students focus on professional integration.

“We awarded 15 scholarships last year and 26 students graduated from the Orange Educational Program,” adds the Orange representative.

Last year the biggest volunteering campaign was “Saptamana Voluntariatului”, a global Orange group initiative that runs each year in Romania too. In 2014 its focus was on two areas: the digitalization of books for the general public and visually-impaired people and the recycling of mobile phones. “With Octavian Goga County Library in Cluj and the National Library of Romania we digitalized over 11,900 pages, scanning rare documents that are now available on the two libraries’ websites and making audio recordings of the materials so they are available to visually-impaired people too,” says Dogaru. She adds that with the help of volunteers the company managed to collect about 1,200 mobile phones through the national network of Orange shops, which have been recycled.

Raiffeisen bank Last year, Raiffeisen Bank channeled EUR 100,000 to 15 projects (11 NGOs, three educational institutions and one hospital) through its financing program Raiffeisen Comunitati. The projects covered social services, health, education and urban ecology.

The program was developed exclusively on the www.raiffeisencomunitati.ro platform. The lender also has other CSR projects that cover fields such as financial education and culture. For example, with Junior Achievement it developed two educational programs: Noi insine for zero or first graders and Familia mea for first and second graders. Within each pro-

CoveR StoRy-CSR 23

Helping hand: local communities figure prominently in companies’ CSR efforts

gram pupils get a free school book called The Junior Journal, a teacher’s guide, volunteer consultant and additional materials. Each school book has five lessons that cover themes such as cash management, the importance of saving money, how to make intelligent decisions on a budget and teamwork.

During the 2014-2015 school year the two partners developed a third

imani mountains.

vodafone Romania Foundation One of the main projects supported

by Vodafone Romania Foundation last year was Mobile for Good, a program that uses mobile technologies to improve lives. “Mobile for Good reached ten projects last year. Its beneficiaries are diabetics, elderly people

“the official draft of the new Fiscal Code, as published by the Ministry of Finance, does not include any changes to the current fiscal treatment of sponsorship expenses. during the technical discussions that took place between officials and business representatives, the need for a reform of the sponsorship law was recognized, so as to modernize some out-of-date definitions and to extend the scope of sponsorship activities that can benefit from tax incentives,” Madalina Racovitan, tax partner at KPMG program for primary schools, Comunitatea mea, for students in the second and third grades, while by 2016 they will launch the Orasul meu program for the fourth grade.

Last but not least, in 2014 Tasuleasa Social in partnership with Raiffeisen Bank launched “Via Maria Theresia”, a project that combines culture and history components with social, sports and environmental ones.

The project aimed to rehabilitate 42 km of the historical road from the Cal-

assisted at home, mentally challenged athletes, children in the intensive care unit of the Marie Curie Hospital, patients with spinal injuries and terminally ill people,” says Angela Galeta, manager of the Vodafone Romania Foundation. In 2013 and 2014 the number of beneficiaries of Mobile for Good projects increased on its 2012 launch, and seven new projects were included. “In 2013-2104 the investment made by Vodafone Romania Foundation through Mobile for Good

program was EUR 1 million. In total, the number of beneficiaries is about 10,000 while the total investment in this project is EUR 1.5 million,” adds Galeta.

The foundation continued its partnership with Salvamont last year with an investment of EUR 128,000 in the activity of the Salvamont control room and cutting the rescue teams’ response time. As part of the “Parteneriat pentru Viata” program, the foundation has supported SMURD since 2005, providing communication services and sponsorships worth EUR 1.5 million in total.

In addition to all these programs, the foundation periodically organizes financing calls in education and health, with Mobile for Good being the most recent, receiving EUR 500,000.“Fondul pentru Fapte Bune” is another such example, awarded EUR 440,000 to help various beneficiaries. In its 17 years of activity, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has financed over 848 programs in fields such as health, education, and social services for beneficiaries including children, young adults and the elderly, and physically, socially and economically disadvantaged citizens.

The foundation has invested EUR 20 million in projects run by its NGO partners for over 600,000 beneficiaries.

Note: The companies and CSR projects/programs included in this article represent only a selection. The article is not a comprehensive report on the Romanian CSR market. anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

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24 TAX&LAW

BRIEFS Finance minister resigns, stays on to complete Fiscal Code Darius Valcov resigned from the position of minister of finance on March 15 following corruption accusations.

His resignation has been accepted; however, a new appointment will be postponed until Valcov completes the new Fiscal Code draft, said PM Victor Ponta. He added that the draft “in which Darius Valcov had and will have a decisive role” will advance “at any cost and in any political context”. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) had previously announced that it had begun criminal prosecution proceedings against Valcov for influence peddling in his capacity as mayor of Slatina. The politician denied the accusations.

New Fiscal Code draft to be sent to Senate by March 25 The new Fiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Code drafts will be sent to the Senate by March 25 with the request they be debated as a priority after Easter in order to reach the Chamber of Deputies by the end of April, announced PM Victor Ponta. He added that he is also considering the option of the government assuming responsibility for the Fiscal Code should the National Liberal Party block it in Parliament.

Personal insolvency law to be voted on by Easter The personal insolvency law could be voted on by the Chamber of Deputies, the deciding forum, by Easter, according to the draft’s initiator, social democrat MP Ana Birchall. The draft law stipulates that if an individual can no longer pay his or her debts, instead of accumulating penalties or being foreclosed on, he or she can declare personal insolvency and come up with a five-year plan to repay the debt. However, the law must consider each case individually in order to avoid abuses, said Birchall.

2014-2020 Financing Opportunities in Romania: State Aid and EU Funds solid proof of the positive impact of state aid, creating 24,500 new jobs and a total estimated contribution of EUR 1.7 billion (collected and to be collected by the state budget).

The new state aid schemes: perspectives up to 2020

Manuela Furdui, Managing Partner, Finexpert

State aid in a nutshell Both cohesion funds and regional aid were designed by the European Union as a development tool for helping laggard regions catch up with the rest of the community. Romania had a first set of state aid schemes in 2007-2014, which have now been replaced by new ones in order to continue the already on-track regional development trend.

State aid schemes have been an efficient and solid-proof financing program with a quantifiable outcome: over EUR 800 million in financing agreements for initial investment that reach EUR 3 billion.

State aid schemes are mutually beneficial: stimulating investments leads to increased funds collected by the state budget and to the creation of new jobs and their maintenance in the assisted region. Therefore, this win-win partnership comes hand in hand with a series of long-term commitments to be undertaken by both parties.

The incentive that attracts

investors and helps regional European Commission proposes member states’ development exchange of tax ruling Romania has often been a chosen loinformation cation in particular due to the existence The European Commission (EC) presented a package of tax transparency measures on March 18 as part of its strategy to tackle corporate tax avoidance and harmful tax competition in the EU. A key element of this is a proposal to introduce the automatic exchange of information between member states on their tax rulings. The proposals will be submitted to the European Parliament for consultation and to the council for adoption.

of state aid. This is called the stimulating effect: the investment would not be made in the region in question in the absence of the aid.

Once a new investment is implemented, it starts creating synergies, eventually leading to a multiplier effect within the region by driving other related investments and developing the local providers of products and services.

The balance of actual regional development for 2007-2014 projects is

State aid continues to be one of the most advantageous sources currently available in Romania for financing strategic investments, granted as cash reimbursement (up to EUR 37.5 million) or exemption.

The EU Commission has revised the state aid rules for 2014-2020. Furthermore, lessons were learned in the previous actual implementation of the state aid schemes leading to clearer national legislation. This has its ups and downs, as it is more flexible in terms of actual project implementation, yet more rigorous in terms of eligibility.

The major shift has been with regards to the intensity of state aid (the percentage of the eligible expenses reimbursed), which has been reassessed in accordance with the average EU GDP per capita. Now, we have lower shares for Bucharest (15 percent) and Ilfov and the West region (35 percent), with the rest of the country at 50 percent.

Here’s an outline of the main state aid schemes available in the 2014-2020 timeframe to support private investments and the basic general eligibility criteria for applicant companies: l have no outstanding debts to the state budget l are not in difficulty, forced execution, insolvency, bankruptcy, dissolution etc. l have no non-executed decisions for state aid recovery and have not benefited from other regional state aid within the same single investment project l have not ceased similar activity in the European Economic Area in the previous two years nor have specific plans to do so within two years of the completion of the investment l the operating businesses have a positive return on turnover and positive equity in the last completed financial year l the newly set-up companies have a share capital of RON 30,000 to RON 100,00 and don’t belong to shareholders who have held other companies with the same NACE code in the past two years.

G.D. 807 / 2014 supporting investments with a major impact on the economy l EUR 10 million initial investments in tangible and intangible assets in one of the eligible fields of activity l The eligible expenses will be constructions of all kind (up to EUR 375/sqm), leasing costs of buildings (up to EUR 5/sqm/month), new technical installations, machinery and equipment and intangible assets.

G.D. 332/2014 supporting investments promoting regional development by job creation l Initial investment that generates within maximum 3 years at least 10 new jobs (including at least 3 for disadvantaged workers), in one of the eligible fields of activities. l The eligible expenses are the salary costs for all new employees recorded for a period of 2 consecutive years, up to the limit of the medium national gross salary.

G.D. 495/2014 exempting some categories of final consumers from the application of law 220/2008 establishing a supporting system to promote the production of energy from renewable sources l Companies which are electro-intensive (5 percent at least) and at risk of losing their competitive position due to the costs of the support granted to the production of renewable energy can be exempted from the payment of green certificates at a rate of 40 percent to 85 percent.

2014-2020 EU Funding Instruments The 2014-2020 programming period is likely to be dynamic, bringing a EUR 30 billion financial allocation for Romania, out of which a significant part is for funding the private sector.

A short glance at the Competitive Operational Program reveals the focus on R&D activity in specific areas such as intelligent specialization (ITC, energy, environment and climate change etc.) and health (national interest priority area).

Other operational programs will focus on increasing competitiveness, energy efficiency and human capital development, with more details to become available once Romania’s draft guidelines for each of the programs are approved by the European Commission.

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

TAX&LAW 25

088 Form – value added tax (VAT) registration Russian roulette

Theodor Artenie, Managing Director, Schoenherr Tax Bucharest

Since the beginning of 2015, a number of legislative changes have been enforced regarding the VAT registration of Romanian companies established in accordance with Company Law no.

31/1990.

As recent practice has shown, these changes have the potential to cause serious issues for Romanian companies since they introduce the concept of “assessing one’s intention and capability to carry out a business activity” as an essential criterion for approving VAT registration applications submitted by said companies or, as will be shown in the following paragraphs, for maintaining existing VAT registration numbers.

Form 088 introduced by OPANAF 17/2015 Firstly, we believe that we are dealing with a procedure that has not been analysed rigorously enough by ANAF, since the assessment of one’s intention and capability mentioned above is based on a special declaration submitted by the company applying for VAT registration.

This statement is in fact form 088, which came into use on 1 February 2015.

It should be noted that this form mainly requests information regarding the shareholders, administrators, the corporate seat, the manner in which the accounting is done and the bank accounts of the applicant. The document makes no reference to the nature of the business activity of the respective company (or to the activity said company intends to start), to the manner in which this activity would be managed (contractual relationships with suppliers and with potential clients), to the sources

of funding and so on and so forth.

This brings up the reasonable question: How can ANAF assess the intention and capability of a taxpayer to carry out a business activity based only on the information collected by means of form 088?

This question becomes even more pertinent since the Order of the President of ANAF 17/2015 establishing the criteria that condition the approval of VAT registration applications (OPANAF 17/2015) offers no information at all on how ANAF is supposed to assess a company’s intention and capability to pursue an economic activity within the scope of VAT. More concretely, there are no criteria or elements that a taxpayer can consider when preparing its VAT registration application so he or she can reasonably expect said application to be approved.

Under these circumstances, the absence of transparency becomes the premise of arbitrary and abusive decisions by ANAF who, as we have seen in practice, reject VAT registration applications submitted after 1 February 2015

by Romanian companies for reasons that remain utterly unknown.

In other words, a company established in Romania that wants to register for VAT purposes and that is required to submit form 088 faces the risk of having that request rejected without being made aware of the reasons for the rejection.

That company will therefore be unable to formulate a proper defence with reasonable chances of success.

It goes without saying that a taxpayer who is required to apply for VAT registration, but is unable to obtain it for reasons which are, at best, obscure, will face a significant administrative burden and that this whole process will likely become an unsavoury deterrent for foreign investors wishing to set up businesses in Romania.

Changes to OPANAF 3331/2013 regarding the ex officio cancellation of a VAT registration number Secondly, we find that the issue of assessing the “intention and capability” has been approached with a rather “one size fits all” view. This is obvious from the wording of section 51 from Chapter III of

the Procedure for the ex oficio amendment of VAT status, approved by the Order of the President of ANAF no.

3331/2013, in force as of 1 February 2015.

This section is suggestively entitled: “The ex officio cancelation of the VAT registration, if the respective taxpayer, who is a Romanian company, set up in accordance with the provisions of Company Law no. 31/1990 […] and registered with the trade registry, fails to prove its intention and capability to carry out a business activity, in accordance with the criteria set by means of an Order of the President of ANAF” (n.r. OPANAF 17/2015) According to the aforementioned provisions, if a Romanian company decides, for various reasons, to change its shareholders, administrators or corporate seat, ANAF is entitled to request that company to provide information regarding its “intention and capability” to carry out its business activity. This is of course done by requesting form 088 which, as we have shown above, contains almost no information regarding these two elements.

If, further to the analysis of the information included in form 088, ANAF reaches the conclusion that the respective taxpayer has failed to prove its intention and capability to carry out an economic activity, ANAF can have that taxpayer’s VAT number cancelled ex oficio.

The conclusion that follows from the above is that, whenever a Romanian company changes its corporate seat, its shareholders or administrators, it risks losing its VAT registration number. It is difficult, in the absence of consistent case law, to reliably estimate the probability of such an outcome, but as long as the assessment procedure applied by ANAF lacks any kind of transparency, one can reasonably expect anything.

Food for thought: just consider the sale of shares (of the kind that happens all the time in M&A transactions) held in a Romanian company. Based on the above, the target company, which most likely is an operational one, could lose its VAT registration number for the simple reason that it has new shareholders.

This would be absurd and yet quite possible under these new regulations which are likely to lead to “casualties” firstly amongst upstanding taxpayers.

BRIEFS New public procurement law draft: awarding process to be shorter The first draft of the new public procurement law, seen by Mediafax, reduces the mandatory bidding period between the announcement and the deadline for submitting tenders for public contracts from 52 to 35 days.

The period could be limited even to 15 days, as compared to only 36 days under the current legislation.

The document also sets out that the methods for awarding a public procurement contract will be supplemented by a new procedure called “partnership for innovation”, where the state identifies the need for a product, service or innovative works that cannot be met by those available on the market.

Chamber of Deputies passes law on political parties financing The Chamber of Deputies has passed a draft law that regulates how local political parties can finance their activities, including campaigns. The law states that political campaigns will be financed from the state budget and that parties can borrow money from individuals or financial institutions but only with proper documentation. Accord to its initiator, liberal MP Mihai Voicu, the law is intended to sever the ties between a candidate and those who finance political parties with the purpose of obtaining future business benefits.

Failure to enforce holiday vouchers law costs tourism sector EUR 50m The local tourism industry has lost about EUR 50 million since the beginning of the year because the authorities have not applied the law on vacation vouchers that ought to have come into force January 1, according to the Romanian Tourism Employers Federation (FPTR). The most recent deadline the authorities have given for enforcing the law is March 15.

An estimated EUR 177 million would have entered the economy this year if only 5 percent of those entitled to vouchers had received them from January 1, according to the FPTR.

Government plans to cut VAT on more food products next year The government has added milk, eggs, live animals and birds to the list of food products for which VAT should be cut to 9 percent as of January 2015, according to the latest version of the Fiscal Code draft obtained by Mediafax.

The initial list featured only bread, meat, fish, vegetables and fruit.

26 SPeCiAl PROjeCt / EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March, 2015

20 years of excellence in s Catalina Rousseau, president and CEO at BDR Associates Strategic Communication Romania & Republic of Moldova, tells Business Review about the evolution of her business on the local market and its main achievements during its 20 years of activity. ∫ AnDA SeBeSi BDR Associates has been present on the Romanian PR and strategic communication for 20 years now. What has this period represented for the development of your company and what were the most significant achievements?

We are celebrating 20 years of activity this year and I would say that these were our golden years in building excellence in professional strategic communication in Romania, and in other new markets. We were dreamers, passionately wanting to contribute to Romania's progress, building aspirational campaigns, changing mentalities and opening horizons in a new world. Profitable business was a second priority at that time. However, our first million Euro in turnover, reached for the first time years ago, was a milestone in the life of the agency.

Entrepreneurship was an adventure which I chose to live bringing exceptional people along with me. The dawn of BDR was in the full light. Few know that the name BDR comes from the Good Morning, Romania/Buna dimineata, Romania campaign which I managed during a three-year assignment for US Deloitte Emerging Markets. It was in the mid 90s. They were tumultuous years marked by major achievements in the agency’s life, building a solid basis for our business.

In early 2000 we opened an office in Moldova, where we formed the first team of PR professionals. The business has grown over the years, with BDR being a market leader in a competitive environment, especially since European aspirations have become an option.

In the late 90s, there was one thing bothering me: how to learn more and improve our knowledge practices. So, we looked around at who was who at international level. Then we started to knock on the doors of powerful companies whom we saw at that time as possible mentors for us. Many of the companies we were talking to were really interested in doing something in Romania, as a new market, which was in full swing at that time.

Hope was everywhere. Yet just one door opened largely to us, from the

Our vision for BDR in the long run is to become a regional independent network, through opening new offices in other markets of interest for our local clients, and in support of Hill + Knowlton Strategies in those countries where the international group does not have a presence, but has business interests.

Catalina Rousseau, president and CEO at BDR Associates Strategic Communication Romania & Republic of Moldova

very first moment we approached them: Hill + Knowlton Strategies, part of WPP. We became an affiliate entering the WPP network. In time this affiliation confirmed in many ways the choice we had made. We developed internal sophisticated competences through special training provided by H+KS, mainly in crisis management, through communication within the network, sharing models, case studies and best practices. We learned from them how to train others, maintaining standards and proposing communication techniques. We learned the importance of a continuous learning process. This is what has happened at BDR, ever since: continuous learning, practice development and self-improvement within our team. In time, we have partnered with other international agencies and highly reputed consulting networks.

In 2005 we brought to Romania Superbrands, which is known around the world for its innovative spirit, in recognition of the brand’s reputation.

For ten years now Romanians have constantly praised and valued their Superbrands through their votes. Our restlessness has made us move further, towards new horizons, in an attempt to get work in other markets, sometimes with very different cultures and mentalities. The spirit of adventure looking for new professional challenges has always been alive at BDR. We have approached other countries, wherever there were business opportunities that we could consider. We won projects for various companies and international institutions on a large geographical scale.

From Bulgaria and Ukraine to Central Asia, BDR has put on its professional map countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia and, more recently, Kazakhstan. We often create our strategies in the Bucharest office, and then implement them in joint teams, together with our colleagues from Chisinau, and local collaborators in the farflung markets.

Our strategy for business development has always involved pioneering in our profession, opening new horizons for PR and strategic communication, wherever we operate.

Excellence in our work, innovation and outstanding results for the client’s objectives, loyalty and respect

www.business-review.ro Business Review | March, 2015

EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS / SPeCiAl PROjeCt 27

n strategic communication in any business relationship and ethical values are the main attributes of BDR, in our ongoing effort to build an impeccable reputation. One major contribution to the development of the communication industry in Romania and the Republic of Moldova has always been what we could simply call the BDR school, even if we haven’t institutionalized it yet. In 20 years of activity hundreds of people have walked through the agency doors, exploring the career opportunities offered by the agency. They have discovered with BDR the beauty of working in this field, carrying this experience with them whenever they move forward to other destinations or new challenges in their career.

BDR people are now scattered in various countries across several continents, from Canada to South Africa, from the US to Qatar, some of them working in large companies or international institutions in Washington or Brussels, others dedicating their live to humanitarian actions, in poor countries in Africa. Among the other things that have always differentiated our agency is the warm welcome we have always offered to expats interested in working with BDR for a while.

My previous outstanding experience with Deloitte has taught me about the power of a team when cultures and mentalities are put to work together.

Such a combination of the creative minds and personal skills of people from different environments represents the key to success. We have shared our organizational culture with interns and students who came to BDR to gain experience; we have always welcomed into our BDR world all those Romanians who chose to cross the ocean for higher education such as an MBA or PhD, and who needed to practice in an agency in their country of origin. This learning process has never stopped, and BDR has never closed its doors to such professional requests. Looking back to what these 20 years have meant in the life of the agency, I think this professional education is the most valuable and consistent contribution that we have continued to bring to a flourishing communication industry in Romania. Our investment in human resources has always been high, ensuring the continuity of the values in which we believe. In other words, we are preparing for the future.

should be adjusted given the current economic climate?

I would say that the communication industry is fully consolidated, although it may not yet have the market it deserves. Our businesses depend, to a large extent, on a healthy economic environment. Our team is highly qualified, but demand for our services is generally dictated by economic prosperity, a significant growth in investments and general development and progress within society, all these factors representing a friendly environment in which we could easily grow and flourish. It is equally true that for us any type of crisis generated by the economic situation is a good source of business, because when such difficult circumstances occur, the demand for communication strategies and sophisticated consultancy is high. But we need a well-balanced and credible market, we need a vision at government level and competent political decisions regarding the future of this country, and the directions to take. Therefore change should come on the part of the decision makers that govern Romania. They should finally assume the mission to create friendly conditions for investments and for economic prosperity, they have a moral obligation to their country to bring prosperity to Romania. The communication industry has made all efforts to this end and therefore there is nothing to improve, or more to do from our side. We should keep providing our assistance at the highest professional level, promoting our values and ethics in business. We are now a voice to be listened to; we are building the future.

How do you characterize the local PR and communication market and what

You have a large team of specialists and consultants. to what extent is it “the

What are the main values of BDR Associates and how do you think they have contributed to the development of your business?

Our values shape our reputation wherever we work: high quality standards in our work, ethics and loyalty when building relationships with clients, impeccable results delivered.

We have always practiced these values, demonstrating each and every day that success in business can be built with true values. Our main asset is our reputation, and if BDR is seen today as a highly professional agency, which never let a client down, this means that in business, reputation is gold.

ambassador” of the BDR brand and how has it influenced the success of your company?

To the highest degree. The majority of the professionals in the BDR team have built a career within the agency.

There are consultants in our team that celebrate 10, 15 or 20 years with BDR. The current team, as well as a significant majority of all those who have left the agency following other career opportunities (mostly abroad), remain our proud ambassadors, because they all valued and respected principles and ethics in our profession. At the same time these people have enriched the agency culture with their own human and professional value. A happy match! Our team of professionals is one of our strongest brand values.

You have nine types of services in your portfolio now. Which are the most sought by your clients?

I have never counted how many competences we offer our clients. It is for sure more than nine, as we have this unique capacity to quickly adjust to a new industry or to our clients’ latest priorities. There is no such thing as a most requested service. It is always a challenge to be able to offer diversity in our work. Strategic communication is very alive, permanently connected to innovative tools, which can help us reach our goals in the most sensitive situations, at any time. The most frequent requests involve results, actually. We have to deliver measurable results, which means that we return the investment made in communication by every client, in every market in which we operate.

You have worked with clients from many industries. What are the main challenges in working with such different customers?

This makes our life so interesting and our consultants say that they never get bored. Our working day is never grey, to paraphrase an old slogan that we created for a former client. But behind the beauty of the working atmosphere at the agency, there is always the other side of the moon: learning about the client and its business operations means learning about an industry at large, understanding the client’s goals, gathering intelligence, making connections and finding solutions, sometimes in very tough circumstances. It is a challenge for us and a big responsibility at the same time.

But nothing compares with the re-

BDR at a glance: international bodies served: EU, USAID, UN, UNDP, UNICEF, World Bank number of employees: 27 permanent employees and more than 10 permanent freelancers industries served: Energy, oil & gas/chemicals, finance-banking, IT&C, government and EU, healthcare, FMCG, sports and lifestyle, hospitality, automotive, logistics & real estate, among others. More than 500 major clients served in over 20 years of activity.

Awards: The SABRE Award for best agency and best campaign in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), awarded by the US Holmes Report in 2006, followed by various Certificates of Excellence awarded at the global SABRE Competitions in 2006 (Berlin), 2007 (Barcelona), 2011 (Prague) and 2012 (Brussels).

2014 cumulated turnover: EUR 1.2 million spect shown by a client whose problem was solved by our team’s strategic approach and its creative thinking.

How do you see BDR Associates over the medium and long term in Romania?

We hope to grow our business in Romania, and to consolidate our presence in the Republic of Moldova. Our vision for BDR in the long run is to become a regional independent network, through opening new offices in other markets of interest for our local clients, and in support of Hill + Knowlton Strategies in those countries where the international group does not have a presence, but has business interests.

Central Asia is still an aspiration for us, and if our assignments in that part of the world become frequent we intend to have a presence there in the long run. BDR has always been a step ahead in our field of activity, following challenges, looking to the future, which can be bright, if inspiration is sustained by innovation, solid ethics and business values. anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

28 SPeCiAl PROjeCt / EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS

BDR Associates: a perfect mix of excellent services and perseverance High-quality services and professionalism, a wide portfolio of services and a deep respect for its clients are some of the many ingredients that have made BDR Associates one of the major PR and communication companies in Romania. ∫ AnDA SeBeSi BDR Associates has been present on the Romanian market since 1995 and has evolved constantly in its field of activity. Today it has a wide range of communication tools and services that were developed over the years, aligning its capabilities and day-today duties to the market trends and demands. It has constantly provided specialized consulting and strategic communication activities, from classic PR tools, and media relations to customized training and public affairs efforts. “2014 and the beginning of 2015 have also brought increased demand for event management, creative development and digital campaigns. Various monitoring and sector analyses are among companies’ priorities lately,” says Catalina Rousseau, president and CEO at BDR Associates Strategic Communication Romania & Republic of Moldova.

Public affairs are one of the services that BDR has in its portfolio. It is very important for various industries, companies and business associations to be aware of the latest changes proposed by the authorities in legislation, or other initiatives impacting the business environment. Dialogue with the authorities should constantly improve, as the government has to understand the specifics of a business and the needs of the private sector when launching various initiatives, including draft laws.

“The business community needs to inform decision makers of the needs it has, in order to operate in a friendly environment, which would mean economic development, new jobs and prosperity in general. It is our duty as PA consultants to propose and facilitate constructive dialogues which can only be beneficial for all parties involved in a common effort to make Romania grow,” says Rousseau.

In her opinion, professionalism, dedication, ethics and results are some of the main factors that have led BDR to success as it is always conditioned by the reputation of a company in the market. “We represent a true success story of becoming a mar-

ket leader, through valuing values. In all these 20 years we have never given up our principles and ethics, irrespective of how difficult times were for our business. The clients have always highly praised our offer,” she adds.

But flexibility, wide-ranging expertise and a capacity to adjust quickly to the market needs are also very important.

“We have expertise in all possible industries and economic sectors, except for the defense industry. We have supported NGOs and international organizations. We have also provided important and valuable work for causes that we felt were close to our hearts,” says Rousseau. She adds that customers are always interested in the agency’s previous experience in their field, but there is always a beginning in a new domain.

BDR operates on a market marked by fierce competition and so it is important for it to be innovative, take risks, have a highly consistent offer for its clients, look for challenges and be honest. “Our lesson learned: never give up on ethics, principles and consistency, irrespective of how much money you are going to lose, choosing the right way. In our business it is key to maintain the respect of the clients, business partners and competitors,” adds Rousseau.

BDR was the first Romanian PR agency invited to the international SABRE Awards competition, traditionally run worldwide by The Holmes Report. In 2005 it won the big award for best campaign in the region, with a project created and implemented for P&G. Other awards or diploma of excellence followed over the years. “Yet, in time, we have put the clients’ priorities in first place, so recently we have not participated in such competitions too often, only when a certain award would bring real additional benefits to our client, as part of our communication strategy. Instead I have been a jury member in several reputed international competitions over the last few years, and this is what I like the most as it allows me to feel the pulse of the industry worldwide,” concludes the CEO. anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

www.business-review.ro Business Review | March, 2015

thoughts from some team members from various divisions Alexandra Mihailescu Partner, Senior Consultant Strategic Communication Romania & Republic of Moldova We’re professionals!

I believe this is one of BDR’s core strengths.

We’re constantly challenging ourselves to deliver at our best, and we're dedicated to our clients, helping them pursue their business and marketing objectives in a smart and successful way. We believe in loyalty and ethics, and we have good nerves in dealing with the everyday challenges of our work. At the end of the day, we’re proud to be the communication consultants one trusts they’ll come with the right advice when facing complex situations. lucia Pirvu Digital PR Consultant Four years ago I made my first steps at BDR as a Front Desk officer. Now I am a Digital PR consultant. Looking back, I see that each day has been an intensive training - fastpaced and often challenging, but in the end fulfilling and exciting.

Thoughout this journey, I had the opportunity to work and learn from top professionals that showed me what it means to work with passion.

Corneliu Manole Head of Corporate Affairs & Finance Division At BDR I learned that behind every success there is always hard work, professional ethics, integrity and a team spirit. These are values I found at BDR from my first working day 7 years ago, and they still guide me today. It was love at first sight.

Ada toni PR Consultant Special events Division This year I turned five.

Five years since I’ve become a part of the big BDR family.

Through these years I have learned so much and gathered a lot of experience, I have interacted with so many different and beautiful people with different approaches and all together made me the professional that I am today.Thank you BDR Team!

Raluca Costache, Partner, Senior Consultant Strategic Communication Romania & Republic of Moldova We are trustworthy and confident people.

We know exactly how far we can dare, how fast we can move and how much we are ready to sacrifice to get where we want. What we promise, we deliver. I find this extremely important and healthy for everyone – clients, industry and us. elena Ploesteanu, PR Consultant It’s been almost four years since I joined BDR team, since I started growing professionally more than ever. I believe BDR is an important milestone in my career – I started as a junior and I am now a PR Consultant. I get to learn a lot of things every day – as a communicator and as a person – and I owe a lot of my experience to my colleagues, great professionals, dedicated and amazing persons.

Dan Mandiuc, Art Director Professional success, career development and money can be achieved anywhere and come in many shapes and sizes. It is not that hard to be creative, regardless where you are.

But when you have a work place where your co-workers are just like family members, it is nearly impossible to choose not to stay with your family and give your best shot. I have been working here for almost 10 years and I can tell you it is a wonderful feeling to come at work and feel like home. This is probably the most valuable reward one can get from BDR. lavinia Dragomirescu- Account executive The valuable expertise, professionalism, creativity and a fine attention to details are the defining elements of BDR. After an internship with a major impact on my professional path, I took the best decision and rejoined the team. I am confident that in the following 20 years, the agency will remain an important presence in the Romanian communication market and will keep capitalizing on the same high-class approach as before.

www.business-review.ro Business Review | March, 2015

entRePReneuR 29

Building a business without role models Andra Danaila, managing director at Update Advertising, tells Business Review about the challenges of operating on a market with no statistics, why she doesn’t look at the competition and how the crisis years actually helped her develop. differentiates you from the crowd?

There are no statistics on the Romanian promotional materials market even though you need to know exactly where you stand. There is a risk of over-estimating yourself and losing contact with reality. But the good news is that you can dream as much as you want, create new opportunities and be creative. To be honest, we didn’t take a long look around us. We didn’t create role models. Some large players on the Romanian promotional materials market have simply disappeared in the last few years. What would have happened to us if we had tried to copy their business model? It is very hard for me to define what differentiates us from our main competitors because I have never focused my mind on this. All I know is that our business is built on several principles: respect, reliability, quality, keeping deadlines and no less importantly, soul. We always have an open, respectful and deontological relationship with our competitors.

∫ AnDA SeBeSi How did you enter the Romanian business scene and when?

I founded Updated Advertising in 2002 as an importer and distributor of promotional materials. In 2007 it became a member of the Promotional Services Institute (PSI), one of the most prestigious associations in the field in Europe and an associated member of the Association of Producers and Importers of the Romanian Advertising Industry (APIP). Update Advertising has been the official distributor of the American Fruit of the Loom brand (since 2014), and an exclusive distributor of the French caps brand Serie Graffic (since 2007) and Bear Dream towels brand (since 2015).

It is also a distributor of other well known promotional brands such as Roly (since 2008), Nath, Russel and Slazenger. On the conventional promotional market we can cover the whole range of corporate, green, electronics and gadgets and confectionery promotional materials with stocks in Bucharest and Europe and we offer customized production.

Why did you decide to launch such a business in Romania?

In my last two years as a student I was working at a market research company and a small advertising firm where I developed my managerial talent a lot. In both jobs I felt the need to restructure the business to grow the companies but I encountered reluctance from the decision makers. This persuaded me to launch my own business about 13 years ago because I

Update Advertising established: 2002 2014 turnover: EUR 1.5 million 2015 estimated turnover: EUR 2 million number of employees: 19 initial investment: EUR 1,000 total estimated investment: EUR 300,000

saw it as a unique chance to put into practice my vision, and my own system of values in a business world that I perceived as conservative and to which I didn’t want to adapt, at least not in the form I knew.

What was the most difficult moment for your business and how did you manage to surmount it?

The most difficult moment for us was the financial crisis when I almost lost my confidence in changing. I had no motivation to get involved but I found my strength to go on and Update Advertising became stronger after its fight to survive in an environment where there was a lack of support from both the Romanian state and lenders. if you started another business, what would you change?

Everything and nothing. Looking back, I would be tempted to emphasize more issues that could have been improved but I would risk destroying this beautiful puzzle formed of lights, shadows and colors. I could change

some decisions and strategies but I couldn’t change the impetus, passion and perseverance that were actually the engine of this entrepreneurial saga.

What are the main challenges that you face in your business now and how do you manage to solve them?

The major challenges we face are in general those related to the growth of the Romanian economy. It is about hesitation in the business community that still seems to be dealing with the nightmare of the financial crisis. In addition it is about the blockage in the flow of money in the economy that is always present. There is also a crisis of qualified personnel that seems to worsen from one year to another. It is more and more difficult to hire individuals that fit with your needs, including those without professional experience. But the years that followed 2008 were a good entrepreneurial experience.

How fierce is the competition in your field of activity and what do you think

What is your current market share in Romania?

Because of the lack of statistics about the market we are active on we can’t talk about a specific market share.

The only trustworthy information comes from our suppliers, which are very active in Europe. On the promotional fabrics market we know for sure that we are a market leader in Romania, while on the other promotional materials market we are ranked among the top ten players, regardless of the supplier.

What are your plans?

If a system functions well then it shouldn’t be changed until you notice that something is going wrong. It just needs to be improved. We will continue to be innovative, creative and invest in our people. This year I had the honor to be chosen as the president of the APPIP, an institution that needs restructuring. We intend in the future to look at personal and professional development on the advertising market. We also want to consolidate our leader position on the fabrics promotional market in the coming years. anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

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30 extra feature-HealtHcare

Private medical chains plan to break new ground this year Having exceeded EUR 590 million in revenue last year and with forecast growth of up to 12 percent this year, the private medical system looks set for a period of rude health, given that approximately 93 percent of Romanians have only public health insurance, according to a recent GfK survey. Currently, private medical networks are expanding their footprint and the range of medical services they offer at a very fast pace.

Sister act: women between 25 and 40 are the major drivers of healthcare in many countries, say medical professionals

∫ Otilia Haraga Only 2 percent of Romanians have taken out a subscription to a private clinic paid for partially or entirely by their employer, while another 2 percent of the public have private healthcare insurance. Nearly 4 percent of people do not have any type of health insurance, public or private, according to a GfK survey.

Bucharest inhabitants have more private medical insurance than their counterparts elsewhere, with 5 percent having private health insurance and 3.5 percent subscriptions to a private clinic, paid for by their employer.

For 2 percent of residents of the capital, their private insurance or subscription also covers their significant other or children. This does not happen in other parts of the country.

Dobrogea, Muntenia and Moldova are the regions with the highest number of people without medical insur-

ance. In Dobrogea, 13 percent of inhabitants and in Muntenia and Moldova 6 percent have no insurance whatsoever.

The most vulnerable age band is young people aged 18-34, of whom 16 percent are not insured.

“Even though the public healthcare system is flawed, only a small percentage of the population have subscribed to private clinics. Since this sector meets needs that are not covered by the public system, this indicates that the market for private medical services has great growth potential. Furthermore, in Romania more than 3 million employees work in the private system,” said Ana-Maria Draganica, group account manager at GfK Romania.

Romanians’ main health habits are to maintain good hygiene (57 percent), adopt positive thinking and a positive approach to life (35 percent) and eat natural and fresh products (27 percent). More than half do not take any

vitamins or supplements.

For a quarter of the population, taking regular physical exercise and moderation in alcohol and tobacco consumption are last on the list of healthy habits, according to the survey, which was carried out on a sample of 1,000 people via face-to-face interviews.

Women between 25 and 40 are the biggest contributors to the healthcare system in every country, according to Mihai Marcu, president of the administration board in MedLife.

“Right now, private medical services in Romania have medium and high prices. For this reason, such services and products are not accessible to everyone because their cost must be borne mostly by patients. A contract with the National Public Health Insurance House that covered 100 percent of the costs would allow everyone to access medical services in the private system. So private medical services could expand without in-

curring investment costs for the public sector,” said Luca Militello, general manager of the Monza hospital.

The private medical services market promises to be more dynamic in 2015 and is expected to grow by 10-12 percent. One of the catalysts for this growth may be the medical subscriptions segment, according to Marcu.

“We believe this year we will see renewed fast growth in medical subscriptions, to the detriment of insurance. This trend will take shape especially at local level where the market is in its early stages. Following the model of employers in the capital, employers in other parts of the country want to motivate their employees and a medical subscription is usually at the top of the list of benefits offered, especially during this period. Demand is growing and the number of contracts completed at the start of this year confirms this,” said Marcu.

Private healthcare networks are expanding not only their business

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32 HealtHcare

Iulian Plescan, operational director, Ares Excellence Centers

model but also the range of medical services they can provide and the complexity of their medical equipment, which means that Romanian patients will soon no longer have to go abroad to get treatment for some conditions.

“While until a few years ago, Romanian patients could benefit from last generation medical equipment only abroad, currently more and more clinics are focusing on this, as well as on the continuous specialization of the doctors working here. Due to investments and medical programs, the private healthcare system will continue to post growth. Until 2014, this annual growth totaled approximately 20 percent. As we predicted last year, the private healthcare system exceeded EUR 590 million in 2014. We expect 10-12 percent growth for 2015,” Iulian Plescan, operational director of the Ares Excellence Centers in Interventional Cardiology and Radiology, told Business Review.

Every year, Romanian patients spend more than EUR 100 million on medical services abroad, he added.

“Currently, patients prefer countries such as Turkey, Austria and Germany for treatment. However, in the past few years, the Romanian private healthcare system has been making continuous efforts to provide the most revolutionary treatments. There are certain illnesses in Romania that local doctors treat better than their colleagues abroad,” Plescan said.

He suggests that open collaboration with the public system to help Romanian patients get treatment at home instead of having to travel abroad would lead to a more responsible healthcare system.

“When seeking treatment abroad, patients are forced to pay exorbitant sums. In some cases, medical standards abroad have been surpassed by what has been achieved in Romania.

The private sector is already making efforts in this direction, but better re-

lations between the two sectors would substantially improve the quality of services offered to patients,” said Plescan.

One of the known and recognized pitfalls of the Romanian healthcare system is that doctors are badly paid and many look abroad where they can enjoy better salaries and living conditions. However, Marcu says the medic brain drain has been exaggerated.

“A doctor who goes abroad takes a step backwards in his or her career.

Romania does not lack doctors, it just needs updating in certain specialisms, and there are not many of these. The main problem is whether the best professionals are leaving, and this may become clear in ten years. A doctor aged 40-45 years old who is at the peak of his or her career rarely chooses to leave Romania. Those who leave are mostly students. But Romania produces 5,000 doctors a year so we will still have doctors,” he commented.

Private health chains expand their scope “Medlife has started to build up a fairly high cash surplus. We are left with EUR 8 million to EUR 10 million a year which we hope to invest,” said Marcu.

The private healthcare network announced last week an aggregated turnover of EUR 80 million and an operational profit (EBITDA) of EUR 13 million for 2014, which represents 25 percent growth on 2013.

The results were in line with estimations and above the growth rate of the market which stood at approximately 7-8 percent last year, according to Medlife officials.

“In 2014, we continued to consolidate our position as national leader.

We expanded in Iasi, Constanta, Galati, Targu Mures and Covasna, and recently also in Craiova, Slatina and Ramnicu Valcea. (...) We increased the number of operations and births, so that at the end of last year we per-

Mihai Marcu, president of the administration board at Medlife

formed 45,000 surgeries and assisted in 16,500 births. We also increased the number of subscribers to 330,000, the highest in Romania. Last but not least, we grew the number of fee-for-service clients to 4.3 million unique customers, which means that one in every four Romanians has been our customer,” said the president of the board.

For this year, MedLife targets 16 percent organic growth to EUR 93 million or 25 percent growth to EUR 100 million if some new acquisitions planned by the company are rolled out. A jump in the operational profit to EUR 17 million, up 31 percent on 2014, is also expected.

This year, the network will develop along three strategic directions: a new series of greenfield projects, new acquisitions and new business lines.

“2015 is an expansion year for MedLife. Over April-May, we will complete five major projects in Bucharest: a cross-disciplinary hospital in Titan, a new hyper-clinic in Berceni, a neurosurgery center in Ferdinand, a dental clinic in Unirii, and a cardiology and radiology intervention center in Grivita, representing three completely new business lines,” said Marcu.

Over the next 15 to 30 days, AngioLife, a new center of excellence specialized in cardiology and interventional radiology which targets severe cardio-vascular pathologies, will become operational.

NeuroLife, a center of excellence in spinal and cerebral surgery, is located in the Ferdinand area, within the Medlife Orthopedy hospital, and deals with complex neurosurgical pathology.

StomaLife is Medlife’s first dental medicine integrated unit.

BioLife is a premium product that will target only the corporate segment, giving a complete evaluation of employees’ health at the workplace. The

program kicked off with a demo session and will become operational over the next two months.

“We also plan to expand the Grivita lab, which will have the first and most advanced automation line for medical samples in the Balkans, with Abbot equipment. In the second half of the year, we aim to complete another two extensive regional projects – the expansion of the Medlife Hyperclinic in Timisoara and the inauguration of a new large clinic in Cluj,” Marcu added.

Apart from these projects, he also revealed Medlife was leading discussions with “three or four medical operators to make new local acquisitions, the minimum value of the turnover per company being EUR 7-10 million”.

“We are convinced that all these projects will consolidate further our position as leader and will bring us closer to our goal, that of reaching 5 million unique customers by the end of the year,” he commented.

Currently, Medlife has 13 hyperclinics in Bucharest, Timisoara, Brașov, Arad, Galati, Iasi and Constanta, 18 analysis labs, 7 hospitals in Bucharest, Brasov, Craiova and Arad, 3 maternity wards, 12 excellence centers with unique specialization and 8 pharmacies under the PharmaLife Med name.

In February, Medlife finished the acquisition of a 55 percent stake in the group of companies Sama&Ultratest in Oltenia.

Another major private healthcare chain on the Romanian market is Regina Maria, which will invest over EUR 5 million this year in expanding its network in cities where it is not present, such as Iasi, and estimates a 20 percent increase in turnover to EUR 67 million.

“Last year we strengthened our presence in Bucharest, Cluj and Constanta, we invested in equipment and opened a clinic in Craiova, as it was an opportunity for us. This year we will expand in other cities where we are

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

not present. For the moment, I can only say that we have signed to do so in Iasi, where we will open a center with integrated services – clinic, laboratory, subscriptions, imaging – in a 1,200 sqm space in which we will invest EUR 1.4 million. The opening will take place in the second half of the year. We are aiming at other openings too,” said Fady Chreih, executive director of Regina Maria, according to Mediafax.

Chreih added that last year the company registered EUR 55 million in turnover and that for the current year it is aiming for a 21-22 percent increase in turnover to EUR 67 million.

Regina Maria, a network with 21 clinics, four hospitals, two maternity hospitals, three medical campuses, five imagistic centers, seven laboratories, one stem cell bank and over 140 partner clinics across the country, has 275,000 subscriptions, out of which 3,700 are at the highest price (EUR 6065) – Premium Star.

The company has over 3,000 employees, after hiring about 300 people last year. This year, Regina Maria has budgeted an increase of over 300 in the number of employees.

Policlinico di Monza has also been developing on the local market. The group has one hospital in Romania and another ten in Italy that cover all medical specialisms. The Monza hospital in Bucharest is built on 18,000

HealtHcare 33

eur 590 mln the value of the private healthcare market in 2014

Nearly 4 % of Romanians have no medical insurance at all

sqm distributed over nine levels, has a capacity of 140 beds and treats more than 2,000 patients a month.

“This year, we will continue to expand the activity inside the hospital where we will open the Urology and Thoracic Surgery department. In the future, we plan to develop a network of medical clinics and continue to expand the hospital’s specialisms and services,” said Monza Hospital officials.

For 2015, the hospital forecasts investments of approximately EUR 1.5 million.

Due to the experience of Policlinico di Monza in developing centers specialized in heart conditions, the Monza Hospital was launched as a center of excellence in cardio-vascular surgery. Since it opened in 2012,

the Cardiac Center, Cardiopediatric Center, Brain Institute and Cardiostructural Clinic have been launched.

Currently, the major medical services provided by the Monza Hospital are in cardiology and cardio-vascular surgery, neurosurgery and orthopedics both for adults and children with congenital malformations.

“In recent years, patients have been going to private chains for very niche treatments. Usually, niche centers and hospitals are extremely sought after, precisely because they focus on a restricted group of treatment or conditions, demonstrating extraordinary levels of performance,” said Plescan of the Ares private healthcare company.

Ares currently has two excellence centers in interventional cardiology and radiology, located in Bucharest and Suceava. The centers are specialized in angiography and have as their sole purpose treating via minimally invasive methods illnesses that could previously only be treated surgically.

Over the past five years, Ares has enriched its portfolio from 10 to 43-45 procedures and this year it aims to reach 50 procedures in its portfolio.

“We are continuously prospecting the market to expand the Ares network. This year we will definitely open a new center, maybe during the second quarter. We hope that over the

next few years we will have five or six centers in Romania,” Plescan told BR. “The Ares centers reached breakeven point just three months after their inauguration. We have no reason to involve other shareholders in the company. (...) We are not thinking of investment funds,” added the official.

The private health chain has “a firm policy of reinvesting its operational profit”. The investments planned for the end of 2014 and for this year amount to EUR 600,000.

Some of the investment budget this year will go on acquiring a second angiography system and a top ultrasound machine that can perform a live 4D trans-esophagus cardiac ultrasound, which helps to correct cardiac malformations.

The diagnostics capacity in the private healthcare system is now higher than in state hospitals. There is just one thing missing in the range of services offered by private health networks, according to Marcu.

“Private medicine started from dental services, continued with gynecology and obstetrical services and now surgeries are being performed at the same quality level as in state hospitals.

There is just one step for private healthcare to take, and that is emergency medicine,” he said. otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

34 media-moBile maRketing

mobile marketing, ready to rise on the Romanian digital industry Despite last year’s predictions, 2015 will not be the year of mobile marketing in Romania, say pundits. Still, the sector has been described as the “little star” of the digital industry. The innovations and the people are in place and the agencies are ready, players told BR, it only remains for the clients to have more courage, invest bigger budgets and be ready to take the industry to a new level.

Maia Novolan, general manager of Syscom Digital

∫ Romanita opRea Mobile marketing professionals have started the year hoping that the specialists are right and that 2015 will be the year of mobile marketing in Romania. But has its time really come?

Are advertisers investing bigger budgets and ready for innovative ideas in Romania as well as in CEE? “‘The year of mobile marketing in Romania’, I would say will be each of the next five years. Last year mobile marketing became a sort of ‘little star’ of advertising. Everybody is talking about mobile marketing and all marketing specialists know that it will play the most important role in the digital marketing of the future,” said Maia Novolan, general manager of Syscom Digital.

Her team has just returned from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the global industry’s most important annual event, professing confirmation of their beliefs: sooner or later a big part of life will become mobile, whether objects, actions or events.

Still, specialists told BR that Romania is unprepared for mobile marketing at consumer level, although for know-how and technology, the main players are more than qualified and ready to market their wares.

Agencies are able to provide highlevel technology solutions and tools, similar to what can be found in well developed markets such as the USA and UK. “At nationwide scale, Romanian consumers need more time to become heavy users of mobile phones.

Romania is moving in small steps, but fast. We have more and more marketing activities with mobile components and, more importantly, marketers set aside dedicated mobile marketing budgets, although still of a low value,” added Novolan.

According to the most recent IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark including data about Romania, in 2013 the budget for mobile advertising was 0.7 percent of a total of about EUR 35 million spent online – still small beans compared to the figures for mobile usage in Romania. “I think the budget will at least double in 2015 since digi-

Bogdan Nitu, CEO at Webstyler

tal is on an overall increasing trend and we are talking about such a small amount,” said Bogdan Nitu, CEO at Webstyler.

Dan Virtopeanu, managing partner at Breeze Mobile, predicts that this year will see continuous growth in local marketers’ intentions to explore mobile marketing. This trend will also bring a rise in the number of projects, but their volume and budget potential will remain behind online and still far below TV. “I don’t believe that 2015 will be the year of mobile marketing in Romania. 2015 will be the year in which smartphone penetration will pass 50 percent and, in doing so, will be the starting point for 2016 or 2017 to actually become that year,” Virtopeanu forecast.

Beyond the budgets Exploring further, Nitu highlights that internet usage on smartphones now represents about a third of all internet usage in Romania and such a figure cannot be ignored. It is only natural that marketers think it is time to invest in mobile marketing. “The first thing every marketer should do is to create

mobile-responsive versions of their web platforms. We are in 2015: a mobile version of a website is not a nice extra, but a must,” added Nitu. Every platform Webstyler created in 2014 was mobile responsive. The company is also responsible for the digital and mobile campaign for the first brand launched by people, Telekom. It was the most awarded mobile campaign at Internetics 2014, winning two mobile communication awards: for mobile campaigns and mobile apps. The app was downloaded by 26,000 people before the launch and thousands interacted with it during the show.

2014 was a year of accolades for Breeze Mobile as well, which won three awards along with The Geeks for the “Redescopera Romania” (Rediscover Romania) app (Gold and Silver at Mobilio, and second place at the Mobile Awards). The firm also received a Silver Mobilio for BlitzApp and a second place at the Mobile Awards for the “Orasul Meu” (My town) app. A special project that the agency flags up is the launch of Samsung Live Smart 365, alongside Starcom MediaVest and Leo Burnett Group.

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

Looking back at 2014, Kubis Interactive representatives say that most of their clients requested mobile version for all of their digital work and, in some cases, even developed the campaigns as a “mobile first”. Kubis created big “mobile ready” communities for Ursus and Dove and for international brands such as Radegast and Birell (Czech Republic). Moreover, the agency focused its efforts on services such as mobile advertising and performance media in order to deliver KPI and make mobile marketing relevant for its brands.

The local mobile marketing market includes SMS campaigns, mobile display campaigns, app development and mobile websites. Public data are still thin on the ground. Still, based on his experience, Virtopeanu estimates the value of the Romanian mobile marketing at around EUR 10 million, adding that it could reach EUR 12 million this year.

Novolan is a little more optimistic, saying that in 2014 the overall market was worth around EUR 15 million, and in 2015 could rise by at least 20 percent, to stand at EUR 18-20 million. “The value for 2014 was calculated by me based on some official public numbers, SMS volumes transacted via mobile operators’ networks and revenues made by companies from mobile activities. The values do not contain the revenues made by GSM operators from mobile internet traffic, which are clearly higher in 2014 than the total value of the other mobile activities,” said the Syscom Digital’s representative.

In the last year, her company has developed complex digital platforms for desktop and mobile, combined with special innovative consumer activation tools, some of them quite unusual. L’Oreal, LG Electronics and Toneli Holding, three new clients gained in 2014, gave Syscom Digital the opportunity to deploy bigger projects and to exceed clients’ expectations, she says. The firm describes itself as no longer a 100 percent mobile agency, but a 360 degree digital company with expertise in consumer engagement.

Dan Damian, managing partner at Ceva Design, admits that he believed the “year of mobile marketing” would have been in 2012, when he started to bet on the evolution of the market and develop mobile apps. “The growth was a lot slower than we anticipated, but we have clients that are early adopters and trend setters and they keep us optimistic. In 2014 we gained clients in many business fields, such as publishing (Cariere magazine), retail (Sun Plaza Mall) and food & drinks (Beraria H),” Damian added.

“What I would have loved to see more in 2014 was mobile gaming: some mobile apps developed by strong companies and brands from this country, that would have been able to generate awareness and create a new type of bonding between the

media-moBile maRketing 35

Vlad Popovici, managing director at Kubis Interactive

consumer and the brand,” said Stefan Iarca, country head at Possible. This year the agency has won a client in Singapore and launched a worldwide breakthrough mobile app called “Adventures of Poco Eco – Lost Sounds,” the first mobile app in the world marking the launch of a music album, says the company.

talking trends With the local mobile marketing sector still making baby steps compared to the rest of the advertising world, but with Romania’s reputation for early and fast adoption, pundits say trends in Europe and at global level will soon reach the country. “The general trend for digital marketing for the coming years will be a mix of mobile and online and matching offline to amplify customer relations and maximize the results, whatever they are: response rates, sales, likes, visits to a platform etc,” Novolan said. Romania must find a smart way to catch the attention of and interact with consumers in the digital environment (via their mobile phone, laptop or a digital device), persuading them to take action offline (in-store) or, vice versa, catch consumers offline (in a shop, at the shelf etc.) and persuade them to continue their experience in the digital world (on a site, social media platform or with the use of a digital device).

“While mobile apps will deliver experiences especially from utility areas with a high degree of re-use, mobile sites have to migrate to more professional alternatives, from simple versions with adapted format for mobile (resizing) to dedicated mobile sites with highly responsive formats and mobile-dedicated structure and con-

tent, available on multiple browsers,” added Novolan.

Virtopeanu sees three big new trends coming. First, more and more brands will copy or abandon Facebook mobile apps. More than 75 percent of the Romanians active on Facebook use mobile devices and can no longer be ignored. Second, advertisers will spend more money on mobile campaigns on Google and Facebook, which are performance oriented. “Unfortunately, when it comes to mobile, local publishers will grow more slowly,” predicted Virtopeanu.

A third forecast is that mobile will start to be integrated more into communication campaigns, with crossmedia interactions. For example, this year, the award for best Marketing Campaign at Global Mobile Awards went to a campaign that generated mobile-TV, mobile-online and mobileoutdoor interactions.

Also, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, the concept of “programmatic buying” was circulating as a future hot topic which could achieve results in Romania in a couple of years. “The automation of all variables of a marketing strategy and their real-time adjustments could bring great results; maximization of reach is exactly what marketers want, but at the same time it may have some limitations as well,” argued the general manager of Syscom Digital.

Mobile will have more and more impact on retail, say pundits. While companies often use SMS to bring their consumers to their location and to grow their sales, they could start to use mobile apps and mobile sites and focus more and more on innovation to improve their clients’ buying experience. “Location-based services and

geo-localization may in the future become mainstream marketing activities for retailers. In some cases exploiting these features means investment in infrastructure. Video-mobile content will gain volume in the future, encouraged by the high-speed mobile internet and future developments.

Video content is more qualitative, generates better experiences for consumers, allows visual engagement and is user-friendly,” said Novolan.

The Webstyler CEO commented, “I think that from this year mobile will witness another revolution with the launch of Apple Pay, bringing together the largest payment companies. This will probably involve security issues, of which Romanians are very careful.”

Nitu also believes that 2015 will bring some steps towards the “Internet of Things,” although in Romania this relates to early adopters. “This is a sign that if you haven’t drawn up your mobile strategy yet, it is time to start, as technologies evolve at lightning speed.

Also, in Romania, mobile will be used a lot in trade marketing, as is already happening in more developed countries,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vlad Popovici, managing director at Kubis Interactive, expects mobile advertising spend to increase and be better targeted, as mcommerce and mobile payments have a bigger impact on overall sales.

“Wearables and smart things will help brands create interactive and innovative experiences for users. Mobile isn’t just one of the most important channels for marketers; it’s becoming the most important channel. Mobile usage continues to rise as consumers purchase more and more smartphones and use these devices to shop online, interact with brands and with each other,” Popovici added.

Clients seek integrated communication As an embryonic market, customers are cautious about their investment budgets. Some are testing and evaluating the potential of the market but only a few are doing so on a regular basis. “Budgets are up on last year, and SMS communication remains the main volume generator and budget consumer,” said Virtopeanu.

Today, clients are looking more and more at integrated communication, including mobile channels, say pundits, becoming more open, as the penetration of smartphones grew so much last year. “When it comes to budgets, we are in a similar situation to years ago when we were convincing clients to optimize their websites for all browsers. To launch an app means to design it at least for iOS and Android, if not even for Windows, and that means a bigger investment. On the other hand, we have to make continuous efforts to prove the results mobile marketing can bring to a business,” Nitu said.

Commentators note that marketing managers are becoming more in-

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36 media-moBile maRketing

Dan Virtopeanu, managing partner at Breeze Mobile

Dan Damian, managing partner at Ceva Design

terested in relevant ways of bridging the online domain with offline media through innovative experiences, and mobile devices are the tools that might do that. “Whether the user interacts with the brand through gamification or there’s a rewarding mechanism in place through locationbased systems, brands can create relevant experiences for their fans.

Budget-wise, mobile or innovative ideas account for some 8-10 percent of the marketing yearly budget,” said Popovici.

users show greater interest in games.

Despite the lack of relevant data, I estimate that around 10 percent of smartphone users have paid for mobile applications,” Virtopeanu concluded.

In very well developed countries, users search for a tool and when they find it, take it (with or without payment). Romanian users first look to find the tool for free, and only if they cannot will they pay for it. “This is probably one of the reasons why the Android operating system is penetrating our market faster than iOS. People buy Android smartphones because they can get free content from Google Play, while in the App Store of iOS, most of the desired content is licensed and chargeable,” noted Novolan.

In order to attract Romanian consumers, mobile applications need to have a proven utility for the user (solving a problem) or be entertaining, usually through gamification.

Popovici believes that mobile applications should be as cheap as possible – either free or with in-app purchases, where items or extra levels can be added for a small fee, but have a benefit. Costs should be between USD 0.99 and 1.99 (providing real value on the medium or long term).

Industry insiders also urge companies to think clearly what the best solution is for the client and his or her business strategy. It is one thing to be a startup that relies a lot on the success of that mobile game and another thing to be a multinational company, where the mobile app or game is just a part of a bigger campaign. “We believe in the model of in-app purchases and we consider it a great business model. At the same time, I believe that a free service should stay free until a

Free versus paid In the last two years the average age of mobile app users has increased and every day more mature people become frequent users too. The young audience was and still is mainly focused on games and entertaining, while older people mostly use utility apps, e-commerce and travel apps.

“Generally speaking, Romanian mobile app users are not that different from users in other countries, except maybe when it comes to costs. They look to download ‘easy-to-navigate’ applications which deliver the right content that they are looking for.

Some research in the past showed that 80 percent of Romanian users prefer to download free applications,” Novolan said.

Nothing has changed from that point of view lately: Romanians are still reluctant to pay for mobile apps.

This is not solely related to mobile, but to content acquisition as a whole.

Romanians are not used to paying for content; which is also why local payper-view systems are not yet working.

“I think the core target is like this (in terms of tech and usage focus): they have an Android/ iOS phone with

“the year of mobile marketing in Romania will be each of the next five years. everybody is talking about mobile marketing and all marketing specialists know that it will play the most important role in the digital marketing of the future,” Maia Novolan, general manager of Syscom Digital a two-year subscription, with some data included. They usually use the internet in places where they have access to Wi-Fi (work, bars, restaurants, home) and data where they don’t (e.g. traffic). They mainly use the internet for Facebook and e-mail, they have a few utility apps, not so many from brands as there isn’t a large Romanian range of such apps. They may have installed one or two other than Facebook social network apps (e.g. Instagram, Tinder),” outlined Nitu.

Although all smartphone users have at least one app, especially in the utilities or entertainment area, their profile depends on the platform they use. “iOS users are more focused on the utility of the app, while Android

point. The aspects that bring a certain quality, plus in the consumer-brand relationship, a brand’s new fidelity measures, need to have a premium note. And to be premium, they need to be exclusive, which involves a purchase. The client needs to feel part of an elitist, special group. The key is in the end a ‘free-premium’ type of communication,” said Iarca.

Novolan, on the other hand, believes that the Romanian user needs to be educated to feel ready and understand the value and necessity of a paid app. “The app market is growing fast; every day thousands of applications are launched or updated and this rhythm is too fast for the Romanian consumer. Basically, the supply is big-

“What i would have loved to see more in 2014 was mobile gaming: some mobile apps developed by strong companies and brands from this country, that would have been able to generate awareness and create a new type of bonding between the consumer and the brand,” Stefan Iarca, country head at Possible

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

media-moBile maRketing 37

ger than the demand. The users’ need is there for sure, but we also need more time to educate the consumer,” said Novolan.

mobile marketing is about long-term planning The local market is adapting to technological changes, but the rhythm is still slow at nationwide level, say players. Technological evolution is not easily embraced by the ordinary consumer and if marketers do not dare exploit this area more and “force” consumers to learn how to use it, it will take even longer. Pundits call for courage and a new way of thinking.

“On the other hand we need to make a real ‘shift’ happen, from mainly desktop marketing to equally mobile and desktop marketing, as companies would like higher engagement, conversion and conversation with their customers in the near future,” Novolan said.

However, in large urban areas, mobile is growing faster and marketers and agencies must understand it in depth, with its advantages and risks, in order not to blunder. The mobile phone has the power to bring advertisers much faster and closer to consumers than before, but marketers have to avoid being too intrusive. Otherwise they will scare consumers away and never get them back.

Education is again a key issue that

Stefan Iarca, country head at Possible

must be addressed, believe commentators. The Romanian mobile market is still home to marketers and agencies’ representatives that need to push themselves and lift the knowledge bar a little more. “They still don’t know or understand the opportunities offered by mobile apps or the broad experiences that can be reached by using them (clients and customers’ loyalisa-

tion, up-sell, cross-sell, recommendations from new clients, etc),” said Dan Damian, managing partner at Ceva Design.

“Besides the fast growth of mobile internet usage, an important aspect is that marketers are open to investing in mobile marketing. But the biggest issue is the fact we are a market that is used to short-term investments, while

mobile marketing is about long-term planning as investment in mobile is returned mainly on the long term.

Also, marketers and agencies have to put more effort into understanding digital relationships and mobile utility,” added Nitu.

Iarca is calling for more entertainment for the user. At the moment, communication is hidden under too many marketing layers and is not focused enough on the user, he believes.

“Everybody says that the user has to be at the center of the communication, but unfortunately this is not happening. I would like to see more play for the consumer, new mechanisms that are not just about a click, a video, a form, etc. To see an engaging online and mobile strategy. To see a big media group writing about Romanian study cases and our market. We are still a country that doesn’t want to leave aside the common, traditional way of doing things,” Iarca added.

Besides the lack of real entertainment, the main problem of the market, according to Popovici, is the lack of trust or proven ROI for mobile apps in the overall marketing mix. “This is because most of these apps are built, launched and then abandoned, with no media promotional budget to help them reach a critical mass of downloads or uses,” said Popovici. editorial@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

38 meDia&maRKeting - inteRvieW

Uber: ‘We don’t choose cities, cities choose us’ The local launch of peer-to-peer taxi service Uber was one of the biggest digital events of the spring, generating a high amount of column inches and comments. Rob Khazzam, international launcher at Uber, told BR how the company came to enter the Romanian market and what its plans are. are you considering implementing any of these ideas in Romania or coming up with new ones, based on the specifics of the country?

We’re always looking to create new and exciting stunts for each community catered specifically to their countries.

However, that doesn’t mean we don’t like to bring out the old classics such as on-demand roses for Valentine’s Day. A truly global project, roses were delivered via cars on the Uber platform in over 100 cities, including Prague and Budapest.

∫ Romanita opRea Why did you choose this moment for your expansion into Central and eastern europe?

CEE is a booming tech hub with a young and innovative population that is quick to adopt new technological innovation. It is also home to millions of cars, as in Bucharest, where approximately 1 million cars are being underused – not in use for 23 hours a day and only transporting an average of 1.3 people. If we could share and make more efficient use of the existing vehicles, then the same number of people could be transported with 250,000 cars.

What is your promotion strategy in Romania?

Our marketing efforts are led entirely by our local team through promotions and partnerships. This means partnering with restaurants, nightlife spots, corporate clients, and festivals as well as Uber-led projects to get Uber to everyone! With Uber in Romania, we want to make sure that everyone has a safe and reliable ride, whether it’s a getting home after a party or an earlymorning trip to the office.

How did you choose the order of the country launches (poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania)?

Uber is a very data-driven company and our expansion plan is no exception. As a product, Uber is interesting because we don’t choose cities, cities choose us. Our technology allows us to see and measure demand before we even arrive in a city. For example, in Bucharest, thousands of people had already downloaded the app, despite the service not yet being available.

How does Romania integrate into your strategy? What are your hopes for this market for the first year?

As with every entry on a new market, we invested a lot of time and effort into ensuring that we have the best local team on the ground to manage our day-to-day operations for both passengers and drivers. We are still in the early stage with uberX in Bucharest, but the response from our passenger and driver community has been overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to what the future holds for this great city.

Our aim in the Romanian market, as in every market, is to be a reliable, safe and affordable transportation alternative. Currently, our estimated time of arrival in Bucharest is seven minutes and we’re always working to get that number as low as possible so

Do you intend to launch Uber in other cities around Romania? if so, which ones and when?

Uber’s ambition is to be everywhere – any progressive, forward-thinking city that has a need for safe, reliable and efficient transportation, we want to be there. We pride ourselves on being a part of a broader mobility movement, establishing transportation alternatives, and are always looking for opportunities.

it’s an easy decision to leave your car at home. We see the future less about car ownership and more about carsharing as smart cities look for smarter solutions to increase mobility while reducing pollution, infrastructure costs and environmental impact.

You have many innovative projects around the world, such as ubericream, KittensOnDemand, WeddingsOnDemand, UberChopper and OnDemand Club Bus.

How do you come up with the ideas?

These ideas are developed by both our marketing team in San Francisco and our local teams on the ground. Each new market represents new opportunities to create great local projects using the Uber network. Recently in Poland, we celebrated Fat Thursday with on-demand doughnuts, using the Uber network to deliver doughnuts across Warsaw and collecting voluntary donations from riders.

What differences have you noticed so far in the habits and behavior of Uber users in different countries?

New Year’s Eve is one of our busiest nights and we always use it as an opportunity to see how Uber fares around the world. This year, we found that Uber riders in Paris were out the latest, with peak demand at 5am – much later than Sydney, Cape Town, San Francisco or New York. While each market is different, our Uber community is very global with over 20 percent of our passengers using Uber across many cities. editorial.@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

39

anticorruption fight improves Romania’s image, say austrian and german investors Although Romania still struggles with issues such as underdeveloped infrastructure, poor EU funds absorption and bureaucracy, the country has reported progress over the past couple of years, said participants in the sixth German and Austrian Investors Forum organized by BR. And recent news about Romania’s fight against corruption helps improve the country’s image even further, they argued.

Ten years from now: Romania needs to make sure it maintains its biggest strength – its workforce – recommended investors

∫ Simona Bazavan “There is definitely a positive development in what we see happening with the anticorruption fight,” commented Gerhard Reiweger, ambassador of the Republic of Austria to Bucharest, during the event.

Achim Troster, deputy head of mission with the German Embassy to Bucharest, added that there are “hopeful signs” coming from Romania’s political scene. “Let me just mention the elections last year, and not because a fluent German-speaking president was elected. What is most relevant for the economy is the fact that the fight against corruption will continue and we have seen this in the last report issued by the European Commission at the end of January, the famous CVM report, which sees some positive signs on a repeated basis. This is not a breakthrough but it is a very good sign,” he said.

Troster noted that he is also optimistic that one of the recommendations of the last CVM report, the one on tack-

ling everyday corruption, is being addressed. “Things will improve, slowly but steadily,” he added.

Representatives of companies present at the event also saluted the authorities’ efforts to fight corruption. “For us in Romania it (e.n. the anticorruption fight) has undergone a fundamental shift over the past year and a half in terms of how this is being tackled both in the public area but also in the private sector. This is basically changing our profile in terms of how we want to invest in Romania,” said Markus Lause, director of the enterprise business unit at Vodafone Romania.

Bridging the gap between the west and the rest Transylvania has long been a region of interest to German and Austrian investors, especially those active in manufacturing, because of its proximity to the west, its qualified workforce and large German-speaking population. In the meantime, the rest of the country, with the exception of the capital Bucharest which has seen strong devel-

Bosch has been present in Romania opment in the services sector in recent years, has benefitted from considerably for 20 years and currently has more fewer investments, be they German, than 2,000 employees in the country.

Austrian or otherwise, noted Joerg K. “We’ve made some very large investMenzer, managing partner at Noerr and ments over the past five years and we will continue to do so. So the clear mesthe event’s moderator.

The underdeveloped transport in- sage is yes. We are very confident about frastructure in the south and east of the Romania,” said the firm’s GM. The comcountry is the main reason behind these pany runs two factories in Romania and regions’ incapacity to attract more in- has plans to invest further, both in provestments, commented Mihai Boldijar, duction as well as R&D activities.

Representatives of Austrian real esgeneral manager of Bosch Romania.

When a manufacturing company has to tate developer Immofinanz also talked transport its goods to western markets about further investments in Romania. as fast as possible in order to meet con- “We have seen increasing demand, espetractual deadlines, the road infrastruc- cially for office and industrial space. ture makes all the difference in the There are companies that are expanding decision to invest or not, explained the or extending their contracts. They see the local economy’s potential,” said GM. As a result, Transylvania has become Sorin Visoianu, country manager for ofvery dense in terms of manufacturing fice and logistics at Immofinanz Group companies and often there are direct Romania. As a result the developer is competitors present in the same area, currently investing EUR 34 million of its he added. Investing in transport infra- own funds to build an additional 20,000 structure is vital to ensure that the gap sqm (GLA) of office space in the Iride between Transylvania and the rest of Business Park in Bucharest and will the country doesn’t widen even further, start the development of a logistics park in the capital this year. stressed Boldijar.

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1. Joerg K. menzer, managing partner, Noerr 2. Sorin visoianu, country manager office & logistics, Immofinanz Group Romania 3. alexandru nastase, secretary of state, department for foreign invesments and public private partnership 4. gerhard Reiweger, the ambassador of the Republic of Austria to Bucharest 5. arnulf gressel, deputy head of Advantage Austria 6. achim troster, deputy head of mission, Embassy of Germany to Bucharest 7. markus Lause, director enterprise business unit, Vodafone 8. mihai Boldijar, general manager, Robert Bosch 9. vasile Cristescu, Business Development Manager, Rodl&Partner 10. Sebastian metz, general manager of the Romanian-German Chamber of Trade and Industry

paving the way for the mittelstand Romania’s poor infrastructure was only one of the main issues when doing business in Romania raised by representatives of the two communities. Bureaucracy, fiscal and legal stumbling blocks such as the legal framework for public procurement procedures and the poor absorption of EU funds were also discussed. Alexandru Nastase, secretary of state with the department for foreign investments and public private partnerships said the authorities were committed to addressing these issues and to transforming the department into a one-stop destination for local as well as potential new investors.

All this would help attract more investors locally and this time around more small and medium-sized companies, argued participants.

“We all know about Continental, Bosch, Schafer, E.On and others being

present locally. I would very much like to see small and medium-sized capital companies coming to Romania as well. I think this would be an excellent source of growth and a new driver for improving the relationship between Romania and Germany and Austria,” said Vasile Cristescu, business development manager at Rodl & Partner.

This would be a welcome development given that most major German and Austrian investors are already present locally and there were few newcomers last year, commented other participants. “German and Romanian bilateral relations have been improving with regard to trade as well as investments. There have not been many newcomers given that we also saw a decrease of FDI to Romania of about 10 percent last year. So we didn’t see so many newcomers but we saw a lot of expansion investments made by German companies here in Romania,” said Sebastian Metz, general manager

of the Romanian-German Chamber of Trade and Industry (AHK Romania).

twenty years from now…

Romania has made considerable progress over the past few years and it continues to develop in the right direction, said Arnulf Gressel, deputy head of Advantage Austria. However, changes need to happen faster and the authorities have to come up with a long-term development strategy, argued panelists. In this context, making sure that the country maintains its main strength – its workforce – over the years is crucial.

“What will Romania look like in 10, 20 years given migration and its ageing population? We are unfortunately losing very good people and we need to have a plan. Companies are looking at the long run,” warned Bosch Romania’s GM. This is an issue that applies to the present as well as the future, argued

other participants. The economy on the whole needs more than university graduates but also better qualified skilled laborers, said Metz. “This is something that is greatly needed because there has been an increase in labor costs and this can only be offset if the efficiency of these workers is also increasing. This is only done when you are better qualified. The dual education system can answer this challenge,” he suggested.

What will Romania look like in 20 years? Should progress take place faster, it will have the resources to ensure its future. “What we have to watch out for is that we don’t lose the time we have. If we go on for another 10, 15 years the same as we have for the past 25 years we will not have enough young and strong people to carry this country further. This is my personal belief,” concluded Menzer. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

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City-inteRvieW 41

at the crossroads of media and culture When she talks about attracting private money to the public-funded cultural media sector, the director of the Radio Romania Cultural Media Center, oltea Serban parau, means serious business. She told BR about how costly it is to maintain high cultural standards and how much courage it takes to fight the public inertia, why the diversification of the cultural scene is the only way to overcome the uncertainty of the future and what should be done to increase the awareness of Radio Hall’s excellent acoustics. ∫ anCa ionita as the director of the Radio Romania Cultural media Center, what main projects will you develop in 2015?

Our main goal for this year is to maintain and improve upon last year’s results, with the forthcoming editions of the Gaudeamus Book Fair and Caravans and the Grand Prix Nova International Festival. These are truly special events for us, as are the national music tours we organize, in a successful alliance of public and private sector.

I am referring here to the tours The Travelling Piano, the Duel of Violins, the Magic Flute and Enescu’s Violin, which will be continued in 2015 – the detailed program can be found on the website of each project.

We have plenty of plans for 2015, yet we always bear in mind that such special projects as the ones I’ve mentioned here strongly depend on the financing sources that we are able to identify beyond the financial support of the Romanian public radio broadcaster.

But all these noteworthy outcomes are the result of cultural activity developed at very high levels, whether it’s the Romanian Radio Orchestras and Choirs, belonging to the two main cultural channels – Radio Romania Culture and Radio Romania Music – or the Radio Drama Department productions. It is very important for the audience to know and understand that these tours, festivals and book fairs all originated in a series of activities at the crossroads between culture and media.

Radio Romania is now a true power in the fields of culture and media. It is up to us, in the end, to convince our audiences of this through all our means, be it theater, the publishing house, Gaudeamus Book Fair or our on air, off air and online content. Yet it is not easy to convince them, because there is still a sort of “inertia” regarding receiving the content produced in this area: this is why it needs courage to say things, even to try to impose them.

Since your appointment as artistic director of the Romanian Radio orchestras and Choirs in 2009, the institution itself and the Radio Hall have been attracting new types of audiences. What was your strategy to achieve these results?

The Romanian Radio Hall has become

a cultural destination more and more frequented not only for the Radio’s events, but also for a series of other events hosted here, showcasing classical music, jazz and other genres. The hall has excellent acoustics and technical equipment .

The perception of concert halls in Romania is not quite right. I think we should try to consolidate the reputation of the Romanian Radio Hall as a venue where the Romanian Radio Orchestras and Choirs reside, the way the Romanian Athenaeum is known as the home of the George Enescu Philharmonic. For now, we can only regret the fact that the George Enescu Festival has for some years avoided scheduling concerts at the Romanian Radio Hall, which has excellent acoustics, thereby restricting the festival venues to the Palace Hall and the Athenaeum, even though the RadiRo Festival has demonstrated that the Romanian Radio Hall is the best venue in terms of quality of audition.

And if people go to the Romanian Athenaeum because they see it as a symbol of Bucharest, what I have tried to do has been to increase awareness of the Romanian Radio Hall and transform it into far more than a place to come twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays for classical music concert.

I think that the Romanian Radio Hall deserves far more than that, because

what happens here has been demonstrated to reach a very high level both in artistic and creative terms. This was the case – just to give you a recent example – with the opera in concert Norma by Bellini, an event we have organized every January for some years now. The last one, held in January this year, ended in a very long standing ovation.

What plans do you have for Radio orchestras and Choirs for 2015?

After the surprising box office success at the start of the year, with plenty of sold out concerts, we have big expectations. It is difficult to choose which to name of the recent concerts, but I will start with mentioning the two by the Romanian Radio National Orchestra which showcased two Stradivarius violins and two great violinists – Alexandru Tomescu playing Violin Concerto No. 2 by Mozart and Liviu Prunaru playing Violin Concerto No. 2

by Paganini. The famous Richard Galliano returned to the Romanian Radio Hall on March 8 to perform with the Radio Big Band..

In the fall, we plan a series of tours abroad with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra and the Romanian Radio Children’s Choir, in areas where Romanian diaspora is concentrated: in Spain (Barcelona) and Italy (Milan). I think we need the same ‘courage’ to

go on in the future, even without the certainty of support in the future. Additional financial support from the private sector will be more than welcome now, when Radio Romania is deeply involved in promoting this field in such a consistent and constant way. In the cultural area you must always make concrete plans in advance, invite and convince cultural personalities to come and support your initiatives, despite the fact that you will not know with certainty until later what you are playing with on the market.

And of course we will attend the George Enescu Festival – as we have done since the first edition, in 1958 – with our two orchestras and choirs who will perform Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) by Mahler, on September 2, at the Palace Hall. It is indeed a powerful concert and it is our great joy that we can come to this festival and show our strength, because with this symphony you can clearly show that you are a force, at least in terms of the number of artists on stage. We will also have at least two open-air concerts in 2015, in collaboration with ArCuB, on the occasion of the Bucharest Music Film Festival and in the George Enescu Festival Square.

The Romanian Radio Academic Choir will celebrate 75 years of activity in 2015, while the Romanian Radio Children’s Choir will celebrate its 70th anniversary. It is one of the most longlasting and interesting projects of the Romanian public radio broadcaster, bringing together culture, education and media, while the young age of its members makes a perfect alliance with the tradition and prestige of the ensemble.

It is also one of the most valuable choral ensembles in Europe, who will represent us in the European finals of the Let the Peoples Sing competition, organized by the European Broadcasting Union this autumn in Munich. Additional plans include a tour in March at the Evmelia International Music Festival IV in Greece. And we will continue – hoping that in the meantime we will find the financial support – with concerts in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, as well as in Bucharest, of course.

Romanian Radio Hall hosts more events than you can imagine. You can follow them through our iPhone and Android applications as well as on our website www.orchestreradio.ro. anca.ionita@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

42 CIty-RestAuRANts

Historical landmark restaurant reopened by City Grill Group

Meat-ing a need: local restaurant scene gets beefed up ∫ tAtIANA LAZAR Bucharest’s carnivores seem to have discovered an appetite for beef in a variety of forms, promoting local restaurateurs to invest in dedicated venues, which five years ago were considered a niche. Last month, Aviatorilor saw the opening The Beef Club, a fine dining restaurant, whose owner, Dragos Panait, has invested over EUR 500,000 in decor and equipment. The restaurant has 76 covers and the owner expects 150 diners per day, with an average bill of RON 180. Last year, Operative Steakhouse Group, the company that runs both Red Angus Steakhouse and now The Beef Club, had a turnover of EUR 638,000, and this year the firm expects a hike of up to 45 percent.

“After five years in the horeca industry, the creation of a new business line was a natural step. We believed that we could achieve another level, a top product kind of place, different from Red Angus Steakhouse in the Old

City Center where customers experience casual dining,” said Panait.

A menu highlight is the Wagyu beef, which has up to 1/3 more fatty acids (such as Omega 3 and Omega 6) than other species, and is more tender.

Customers can sample it in Wagyu Australian Rib-Eye for RON 320, among many other beef choices.

Diners whose palate favors the piscatorial can select lobsters directly from the restaurant’s aquarium for prices from RON 290 to RON 340 for a Lobster Thérmidor, an oven-baked Lobster with Béchamel Cheese Sauce.

Vegetarians are not forgotten, with dishes like Celery Mushroom Pot Pie (RON 26) or Veggie Burger topped with steamed Asparagus and Tzatziki Sauce (RON 25). Soups, salads, desserts and a special selection of wines pour les connoisseurs round out the menu.

Address: 30A Emil Pangrati Street, open daily from 12.00 until last customer. editorial@business-review.ro Photo: City Grill

Dragos Petrescu, CEO of City Grill Group

∫ tAtIANA LAZAR

The Beef Club

Cattle class: you’re sure to heifer good time at this brand moo beef restaurant

The 1938 historical monument situated in Herastrau Park, Pescarus restaurant, has been taken over by local businessman Dragos Petrescu, CEO of City Grill Group, who promises to reopen the restaurant in May after a EUR 450,000 facelift. Some of the investment will be deducted from the rent, which has been set at 9 percent of the revenues.

“The location will maintain its name, which is a powerful brand for those living in Bucharest in the Communist period, and will be the second Caru’ cu bere,” said Petrescu at a press conference.

Pescarus has almost 400 covers indoors and 600 seats on its terrace, which will be completely refurbished so it can be used year round. The

facelift will restore part of the former interior design, revitalizing the ideas of architect Horia Creanga, nephew of national writer Ion Creanga, then considered a visionary.

The menu will be traditional Romanian with contemporary flavors, and will include special City Grill favorites, such as the well-known mici.

Currently, the City Grill Group has 16 restaurants and cafes, with 4,500 covers, under the brands Trattoria Buongiorno, City Café, City Grill, Hanu Berarilor and Caru’ cu Bere. Last year, its turnover was EUR 20 million, and Caru’ cu Bere itself made EUR 5.5 million. The group has over 10,000 diners per day, served by 900 City Grill employees.

Address: 1 Aviatorilor Blvd. editorial@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

CIty - weLLNess 43

spring into sport Spring has finally sprung – the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the plants are beginning to flower. But how about your body? Is it ready to compete in the race for a healthier life? ∫ tAtIANA LAZAR

Photo: Mihai Constantineanu

The increasing number of marathons and other such sporting events makes one wonder whether Romanians have finally started to understand the importance and benefits of doing physical activity. According to the results of the latest Eurobarometer survey on sport and physical activity, released in March 2014 by the European Union, 59 percent of EU citizens never or seldom exercise or play sport, and in Romania fits with this posts the same high percentage.

Sport or physical activity at home is popular in Eastern European countries and Romania too, with 53 percent of regional respondents from those who answered they are doing sports doing some exercising exercise, though only 6 percent of them use health or fitness centers. The lowest figures for membership of a sports club are in Romania (1 percent), Bulgaria (2 percent) and Poland (3 percent).

Although the nation is not as physically active as Northern Europe, which scored where above 70 percent for of people exercise or play do sport,[the number of local races is rising every year, for children, amateurs, professionals and even runners with special needs.

Moreover, 47 percent of Romanians say they are motivated to improve their

Ready, steady, run for fun: participants pound the pavements

health. And this motivation can be seen during sports events organized nationwide, where many participants sign up to support or advertise an NGO or a cause while running.

Let’s run a mile Forthcoming runs include: l Forest Running Competition (Crosul Padurii) – March 28, Tineretului Park, www.crosulpadurii.ro l Sand’s Marathon (Maratonul Nisipului) – March 29, Mamaia resort, Constanta, www.maratonulnisipului.ro l Runfest – April 19, Cernica Forest, www.runfest.ro l Cernica Spring Trail Running – April 26, Cernica Forest, www.adventuremania.ro l Wings for Life World Run – May 3, Pantelimon, www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com l Royal Marathon (Maratonul Regal) – May 10, Herastrau Park, www.corporeanima.ro l Bucharest Half-marathon – May 1617, Bucharest, www.bucuresti21km.ro

Cycling gets serious terrain

Get on your bike to support a worthy cause

Last year, the Environment Ministry announced that it would allocate EUR 10 million to the implementation of cycling infrastructure, in a project approved by the Bucharest City Council.

The project consists of 97 km of cycle lanes on about 60 streets. Work has yet to begin.

Prince Nicolae is also promoting cycling, planning to cross the country from north to south for humanitarian

proposes, raising funds for the Curtea Veche Association. He aims to ride over 1,100 km in 11 days, from Sighetu Marmatiei to Constanta harbor.

Although cycling events are not as numerous as their running counterparts, this spring brings several options: l The Fairies from the Magical Forest – April 4-5, Urlati area, www.cyclingromania.ro Includes a forest picnic with photo session for participants, a visit to and wine testing at Bellu Museum, a 19th century manor, dinner at the manor and campfire. l Road Grand Pink – April 26, Otopeni, www.roadgrandpink.ro The organizers are holding easy and long rides, with a special adult and child section, in order to promote cycling as a means of urban transportation. l RocketBike Fest – May 31, Cernica Forest, www.rocketbike.ro A cross-country cycling competition (XCO) which aims to support a healthy lifestyle and promote cycling as a leisure pursuit. The event gathers nature lovers and sporting competition enthusiasts, in support of organizations promoting the integration of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders. editorial@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

44 CIty-FILM

why Him? emilian Oprea takes on Romanian tragedy in new political thriller Inspired by real events in Romania in the early 2000s, namely the suicide of Cristian Panait, Why Me? is a grim story of disillusionment. Cristian, played by emilian Oprea, was an idealistic young prosecutor who attempted to unravel a tangled case of corruption in a chaotic social and political time. The star of the film told BR about the challenges of bringing a tragic event in Romania’s recent history to the big screen. ∫ tAtIANA LAZAR you’re primarily known as a stage actor. was the transition from theater to film difficult?

It's not necessarily a shift from theater to film because I continue to do theater. But I believe film should be a natural thing like any other acting process, theater, film or dance. I cannot say that I will be focused on one of these areas, but I can say that I will not give up theater.

How did you get under the character’s skin?

Tudor was very supportive and gave me several papers on the case, but I also talked to an ex-girlfriend of the prosecutor, some students from the university where he used to teach and to another prosecutor, who was one of his colleagues. Everyone was openminded and willing to talk to me and tell me what Cristian was like in his private life. From a professional point

Photo: Libra Film

How were you cast in the main role of why Me? I didn’t audition. Tudor Giurgiu had previously seen me in The Pillow Man (Omul perna), a play that was selected for the National Theater Festival, while he was looking for actors for Of Snails and Men (Despre oameni si melci). For that movie, I auditioned for a supporting role and they invited me to try out for the main character, but I looked too young. So I asked for a smaller role and it was a hard decision for Tudor, as (actor) Andi Vasluianu was young too, and the characters didn’t fit with the script.

Then Tudor invited me for drinks and I was a bit angry because I wasn’t in the cast of Of Snails and Men. Very calmly and seriously, Tudor offered me the main part his next movie. Afterward he gave me some papers and a CD. First, I thought it was a relaxed meeting where we were drinking and chatting to get to know each other, but then I realized that things were pretty serious. I didn’t know about the case of the prosecutor Cristian Panait because back then I was in a theatrical bubble and nothing could reach me except theater. After reading the materials that Tudor gave me, I called some friends, some lawyers and some police officers, to find out more. This is how the story started.

of view, I already knew Cristian was an exemplary man, a wonder-child of the Romanian justice system. What was interesting to me was the fact that the more I found out about him, the worse I felt because I empathized more and more with him – too much, some might say. When we screened the film at the National Peasant Museum, a judge told us that what happened to Cristian Panait would no longer be possible, as the Romanian justice mechanisms have improved, which made us realize Cristian’s story must be well known and compared with what’s happening now. what was the most difficult scene in the movie?

There were plenty. One was when Cristian decides to take action regarding the prosecutor Alexandru Lele.

Another was the last week of shooting, when we moved to Cristian Panait’s house. There were difficult moments because I knew that he’d been alone,

while I was surrounded by people and still driven by mixed feelings. I tried to understand what had happened in those 20 days to change a strong man into almost a wreck, who was eventually driven to kill himself by throwing himself off the fourth floor in front of the church, even though he was very Christian. Nobody knows what happened and this is why I feel so sorry for him and I regret not knowing him when he was alive. what was it like working with tudor Giurgiu after your previous experience with Radu Afrim?

Tudor protected me during shooting and very much took care of me, acting like a big brother. We worked very well together and I hope we will go on to shoot other movies together. My relationship with Radu Afrim was, is and will always be explosive. When we have to work on a new performance, things become rather difficult because Radu is very demanding in a

very positive way, focusing on every character, from posture and habits to how a feeling must be transmitted to the audience. you also appear in self-Portrait of a Dutiful Daughter, directed by Ana Lungu, which was shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival. what’s next?

2014 was indeed a good year for me, both professionally and personally.

Self-Portrait of a Dutiful Daughter made an impression at Rotterdam and I am now waiting to see the Romanian public’s reaction. I have also finished shooting a short, The Messenger, with Radu Potcoava, which will soon be released. I am working on a lecture-performance at Act Theater with Eugen Jebeleanu. Otherwise, I am still performing in Braila, at the Maria Filotti Theater, where we are all waiting for the building to be finished in order to act again in the main hall. editorial@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

CIty-CuLtuRe 45

FILM RevIew

CuLtuRe

Jimmy’s Hall

Cultural desert? survey paints low-brow portrait of local leisure habits ∫ ANDReeA MARINAs

Hall in a good cause: activist Jimmy gets close to Oonagh on the dance floor

DebbIe stOwe Director: Ken Loach starring: Barry Ward, Simone Kirby, Jim Norton On at: Hollywood Multiplex, Cinemateca Union 1930s Ireland, and a prodigal son is making his way home after a decade’s absence, spent working in the US. Charismatic and handsome, Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) is a legend in County Leitrim, largely for the hall he once set up – a community center where open-minded folk would gather to dance, play music and discuss literature and ideas.

With Jimmy’s departure, the hall closed – much to the relief of the local Catholic worthies, who objected to the notion of members of their flock having fun and thinking for themselves when they should be sitting in church listening to turgid sermons about what terrible sinners they all are.

But the local clergymen are not the only people that Jimmy upset. A radical republican activist with communist sympathies, he had emigrated to New York ten years earlier to avoid arrest (leaving a sweetheart, played

by Simone Kirby). Now back leading the townsfolk in support of the poor and oppressed against the local fat cat landowners, Jimmy’s rabblerousing is riling the local authorities once again.

Directing is Ken Loach, who’s nearly as much of a socialist firebrand as his hero, so expect the politics to be laid on heavily. This can be troublesome at times in the modern, international context: the Irish Republic Army (IRA, a terrorist group that sought a united Ireland) is referred to sympathetically, which will jar with

many viewers, while Romanian audiences may take exception to the rosetinted view of communism.

Loach doesn’t much go in for nuance: rich landowners, police and their sympathizers = bad; poor, oppressed and left-wing = good (though one of the film’s antagonists is shown to have some redeeming qualities as the story unfolds).

But setting aside the politics, Jimmy’s Hall is a solidly enjoyable and uplifting drama, conventional in its narrative but well done, warm and rewarding. Whatever its socialist proclivities, the value the film puts on the arts, study, free spiritedness, speech and thought, and community solidarity, and its rejection of dreary dogma and conformity is a universal message.

Barry Ward is perfect as Loach’s twinkly-eyed leading man, bringing the right blend of rugged charm and good looks, humility and magnetism to the role of Gralton, a real-life communist leader. The love interest subplot is handled well with Kirby’s homely Oonagh adding a romantic poignancy to the sacrifices Jimmy is forced to make for his principles, without collapsing into sentiment.

The rest of the case provides colorful support, particularly Jim Norton as an embittered priest and Aileen Henry (incredibly and impressively in her first acting role) as Jimmy’s weary but canny mother.

Based as it is on real events and people, the film can be forgiven for its lack of surprises. Whatever your thoughts on Loach’s political vision, Jimmy’s Hall – said to be the director’s last film – is a big-hearted and impassioned cry for freedom, open-mindedness and self-expression, one that it’s hard to reject. debbie.stowe@business-review.ro

About 14 percent of Romanians go shopping at the mall every month, according to the Cultural Consumption Barometer published on March 17 by the National Institute for Cultural Research and Training (INCFC), but only 1.7 percent go to the library to read.

According to Agerpres, the study found that watching films (88 percent), reading specialist books (23 percent), listening to the radio (76 percent) and reading newspapers (50 percent) were respondents’ most popular means cultural consumption.

High culture remains a niche activity, with 80.6 percent of respondents saying they do not attend classical music concerts, and 15.2 percent seldom doing so, according to the survey, quoted by Mediafax newswire.

The number of theater goers has also dropped over the past decade by about 14 percent, marking the highest decrease in a form of public cultural con-

The barometer shows another Romania

sumption for which data are collected.

In 2014, 5.7 percent of people nationwide went to the cinema at least once a month, with fewer men that women going. In terms of reading, the outlook is also dismal. Some 79.2 percent of interviewees did not go to the library to read last year. Library goers tend to be people below 34 and with a higher level of education, having at least graduated from high school. andreea.marinas@business-review.ro

www.business-review.eu Business Review | March 2015

46 CITY

Calendar ∫ TATIANA LAZAR Young garlanded musicians perform March 24, the Radio Hall Romanian violinist Alexandra Bobeico (18), Swiss cellist Chiara Enderle (22) and Russian pianist Alexander Kutuzov (18), all winners of prestigious international competitions, will show off their virtuosity by each performing a concert, under the wand of Gabriel Bebeselea.

premiere: From Paris with Love. The iconic pianist will play some of his most famous works for two hours, accompanied by ballet and orchestral company Royal Camerata. Tickets, which cost from RON 95 to RON 400, are available from the Eventim network.

Gopo awards March 30, Bucharest National Theater

Kilipirim Book Fair March 25-29, Sala Dalles

Photo: Silviu Pal

Avid readers will find an array of Romanian and imported books, music and audio-video items, and antiques such as coin collections. As the name suggests – “chilipir” is the Romanian word for “bargain”– prices will be affordable, with discounts ranging between 30 and 80 percent.

Richard Clayderman – From Paris with Love March 26, Sala Palatului Richard Clayderman returns to Romania for the fourth time with a world

Marc Anthony March 31, Sala Palatului

The ninth Gopo Awards highlight the growing prestige of local filmmaking.

Romanian cinema’s New Wave has for several years now served as a cultural ambassador for the country, and the awards honor the main local cinematic achievements of the previous year.

Andrei Gruzsniczki’s Q.E.D. has received 17 nominations this year, while Nae Caranfil’s Closer to the Moon got 12 nods.

The wait is over for Marc Anthony fans who were disappointed when the singer cancelled a Bucharest show scheduled for last May in response to the Ukraine crisis. The American will perform hits such as No Me Ames, I Need to Know, You Sang to Me, Rain Over Me and Tragedy on this, his world tour, Vivir Mi Vida. Anthony, formerly Mr. Jennifer Lopez, will also showcase his latest album, 3.0. Tickets cost from RON 220 to RON 870 and are available from the Eventim network.

Women Ballet April 3, Bucharest National Opera Romanian choreographer Gheorghe Iancu returns to the Bucharest National Opera stage with a performance that had its Romanian premiere in 2009, Women. The original choreography of the performance, devised in 2002 for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre, won the Danza & Danza choreography award. The set design and costumes are the work of Luisa Spinatelli, an Italian designer familiar with Iancu’s performances. She was also responsible for the costumes for Swan Lake, another production staged at the Bucharest National Opera by Iancu.

Next Film Festival April 15-19, several locations Up to 30 short and medium-length films made by young and talented movie directors and sound designers from around the world will compete at the NexT awards. The event also serves as a meeting place for those who express themselves through film and love the medium.

Rigoletto April 15-16, Bucharest National Opera After 60 years of the same version, a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is staged at the Bucharest National Opera, the work of top Australian director Stephen Barlow and Greek artist and stage designer Yannis Thavoris. The action has been transported to prohibition-era Chicago (1929), a world of gangsters, gambling, rum-running and prostitution. (This marks a change from events of the original libretto which unfold in 14th century Paris, a setting the composer switched for 16th century Italy to avoid censorship issues.)

Ballet triptych: Classical Symphony, Pettite Mort and Marguerite and Armand April 25, Bucharest National Opera

The performance brings together the work of Yuri Possokhov, Jiří Kylián and Sir Frederick Ashton, combining contemporary and academic dance and tapping into universal themes and elements of ballet. The three compositions represent different approaches to the subject of love. editorial@business-review.ro