Romanians working in Spain hold on and still send a lot of money home
Romanian workers employed in Spain, home to the largest community of Romanian migrants – around one million people, prefer to remain there under technical unemployment, and receive 800-1,000 euros on average, i.e. 80% of their wages, rather than return to Romania, where the prospect of an 8% decline of the economy is not very appealing. Technical unemployment is paid based on the number of years worked, four months for every year worked. “There were Romanian workers in Spain who became unemployed, returned to Romania, but found that they had much fewer employment opportunities and went back. If Romania’s economic situation does not improve, no one will venture to leave a country they are already familiar with and which, however, has economic stability,” says Gelu Vlasin, vice-president of FEDROM (The Federation of Romanian Associations in Spain), which includes 27 Romanian associations. In fact, Romanian workers employed abroad sent 2.9 billion euros back home in the first five months of this year, 13.7% less than in the similar period of last year, according to data from the NBR (National Bank of Romania). ZF
European Drinks, the only Romanian company to enter Polish market
The European Drinks group, controlled by brothers Ioan and Viorel Micula, the third largest soft drinks producer on the Romanian market after Coca-Cola Hellenic and Pepsi Americas, with 133.4 million euros in turnover in 2007, is the only Romanian company that has so far managed to open a subsidiary with Romanian capital in Poland. The Polish division of European Drinks operates under the Global Food Poland brand, and specialises in production of confectionery and soft drinks using Romanian technology. Poland, on the other hand, has 509 companies on the Romanian market, with an overall share capital in excess of 70 billion euros, according to Constantin Nita, Minister of SMEs, Trade and Business Environment, present at the signing of the cooperation agreement between Poland and Romania on small and medium-sized enterprises. The largest Polish investors present on the Romanian market include metal packaging manufacturer CanPack, juice producer Tymbark Maspex and Asseco, a company operating in the IT sector. ZF
Tymbark brings 28m-euro turnover to Maspex group
Polish group Tymbark Maspex, producer of Tymbark juices and of La Festa instant chocolate, posted a 121 million-RON (around 28 million-euro) turnover on the Romanian market in the first six months of the year, up 13.9% against last year, according to data provided by the company. “We estimated a 20% turnover rise for 2009, and it amounted to 13.9% in the first six months of 2009. We hope to make up for lost ground in the second half of the year,” said Krzysztof Grabowski, president of Tymbark Maspex Romania. Last year, the producer posted a 215 million-RON (58.4 million-euro) turnover, up 13% against 2007. The turnover also includes sales of Arnos pasta, taken over at the end of 2007 from Oradea-based businessmen Arpad and Janos Gere. The Polish company posted sales estimated at 5 million euros on the pasta market. Tymbark inaugurated its second plant in Romania on Wednesday, alongside the old plant in Valenii de Munte (Prahova county), following a 30 million-euro investment. ZF
The state hopes it will know how many computers it has by October
Having spent around a billion euros over the last 8 years on computerising public institutions, but in a chaotic manner, due to systems not being interconnected, the Ministry of Communications set out to find out the exact number of computers and of software applications installed in public institutions in Romania, according to minister Gabriel Sandu. “I will send an official request to all ministries and agencies, and expect to receive an inventory of all programmes, as well as information on investment plans in this sector, but mainly about all operating programmes,” he said. According to him, public institutions have to provide an inventory within a month from the request. “In October we will know the exact number of working PCs and what software is installed on them. Making the actual inventory “on site”, as we try to achieve interconnection and interoperability will be difficult. But we will know the statistical data by the end of October,” Sandu added. He specified he was expecting to have data on the operating situation in the administration by the end of the year. ZF