Doing business in Romania may still be a serious challenge for many foreign investors, but the investment road that leads to the country has already been paved, in some areas more, in some areas less. However, if you were to play it safe, there would be two or even three domains that stand out compared to others in terms of their proven success rate. These are the IT and automotive, followed by tourism, but the latter seems to be much better capitalized by local entrepreneurs and investors than by foreign businessmen.
Coming back to IT and automotive, we can say without doubt that investments in the sector have exploded in recent years. IT giants, such as Microsoft and IBM, have major divisions in the country, and obviously they are not the only foreign corporations that shifted towards Romania. Bigger or smaller other players have also turned to the country mainly due to its lower costs compared to other European states and because of the strong support offered by the Romanian government for major foreign investments.
In addition, perhaps the most important factor that drives IT companies to Romania is the quality and the number of specialists that can be found here, specialists that have proven their worth and that can guarantee a good success rate for investments. Under these circumstances, the IT industry has grown at a rapid pace in recent times, rising with about 20% per year over the last 10 years, a number which practically speaks for itself.
Pretty much the same thing can be said about the automotive industry, an industry that has also seen significant growth in recent years, Romania becoming a genuine hub for both car manufacturers and for the automotive parts makers. Apparently, the main driver here has been the the governmental support mentioned earlier, auto giants benefiting in some instances of grants summing up to 50% of the total value of the investment made. Automatically, names such as Bosch, Daimler, Continental or Valeo, immediately entered the market and have done it successfully, their business in Romania growing exponentially since their entrance.
Opportunities exist in other areas as well, especially since the state encourages investment in any field and thus develops constant strategies in order to boost foreign investments, everything according to existing EU rules and regulations. Among these strategies we can mention the subsidizing of wage costs; fiscal incentives; access to infrastructure without paying taxes; transfer of state resources, etc.
Sources:
http://www.dailybusiness.ro/stiri-auto/segmentul-automotive-creste-atuurile-romaniei-110227/
Claudiu Bolcu
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