The Romanian consulting services market witnessed considerable expansion last year, to 270-280 million euros according to some estimates, due to economic growth and the forthcoming European Union integration, say representatives of consultancies.
The market last year revolved around 270-280 million euros, its year-on-year growth exceeding by far the European and global average, stated Codrut Pascu, managing director with Roland Berger consultancy.
“Some markets saw increases by almost 20% or even more,” specified Pascu.
Despite last year”s boom, the market is still below the level registered by other Eastern European states, such as Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
“The Romanian consulting services market expanded significantly due to the overall economic growth and the favourable prospects generated by the future EU integration,” stated Victor Kevehazi, senior partner with KPMG Romania.
The market would grow increasingly competitive after Romania joins the European Union, added Kevehazi.
The head of the Tax Department of Ernst & Young consultancy, Venkatesh Srinivasan, puts the Romanian business professional services at around 200 million euros.
“Nevertheless, we only have prognoses, we don”t know the exact value of the market,” stated Srinivasan.
Ernst & Young official divides the consulting services market into audit and accounting, legal consulting, IT and taxes, estimating each segment, in the above-mentioned order, at 70-80 million euros, 60-70 million euros, 30-40 million euros and 20-30 million euros.
The Russian and Polish markets are the biggest in the field of business consulting services in Central and Southeastern Europe.
Both are four or five times bigger than the Romanian market, while the Hungarian market is double that of Romania and the Bulgarian market does not exceed one quarter of the domestic market”s value, states the head of the tax department within Ernst & Young.
“We started from a small base and it will take us many years of uninterrupted growth to reach the level of European Union countries. There is a positive aspect, though, since this situation reveals a significant growth potential over the following period,” explains Roland Berger official.
Romanian consultants” income is also below the average level of income their colleagues of neighbouring countries make.
According to Roland Berger, a consultant earns at the beginning between 6,000 euros and 10,000 euros per annum (gross income), but subsequent increases stand at 30-40% per annum, to a maximum ceiling of 120,000-150,000 euros/year.