ROMANIA’S PREMIER BUSINESS WEEKLY APRIL 28 - MAY 4, 2014 / VOLUME 18, NUMBER 15

CITY: Photographer Daniel Mordzinski, knows for the manyportraits of writers he has taken during his thirty-year career,tells BR about his work, some of which is currently on showat the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest »page 12

NEWS

Ballot breakMPs will stay in theirconstituencies for thenext month to workon the political cam-paign for the Euro-pean Parliamentelections» page 4

NEWS

Terminating taxesThe government saidit has found 70 taxesand charges it couldscrap with limited im-pact on the statebudget, to ease the fis-cal burden on firms» page 5

The authorities are pushinga pilot intended to root outblack-market work and taxevasion » page 9

SIBIU LOCAL INVESTMENT

ENJOYING A STRATEGIC POSITION, GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE AND SKILLED WORKFORCE, SIBIU IS MOVING TO SIMPLIFY INVESTMENT PROCEDURES TO ATTRACT MORE BUSINESS » INSIDE INSERT

CRACKING DOWN ON INFORMAL

LABOR

NEW S 3www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

NEWS in briefNEW S 3

AGRICULTUREAnholt Investment buys 6,000ha of land in Botosani for EUR11 millionAmerican investment fund Anholt In-vestment is entering the agriculture in-dustry in Romania by acquiring AgrariaNord and Arland in Botosani in a EUR11 million deal. The two farms have atotal area of 6,000 ha under adminis-tration. Agraria Nord, which comprises5,000 ha, had previously been takenover by Austrian billionaire GeraldSchweighofer, whereas Arland belongedto Danish company Arland Invest APS.Neither Schweighofer nor Arland pro-vided any details on the deal, but zf.roreported that the Austrian investorswould receive EUR 10.5 million fromthe transaction, while the Danes wouldpart with their operations in Romaniafor EUR 500,000. Anholt Investmentpaid on average EUR 1,800 per hectareof land.

BANKINGCEC Bank to grant SMEs EUR116 mln of state-backed loans… State-owned CEC Bank has around RON260 million (EUR 58.1 million) of stateguarantees at its disposal for the nexttwo year that can support RON 520 mil-lion (EUR 116 million) of lending to smalland medium-sized enterprises, accordingto a scheme carried out by the Ministryof Finance , through the National Guar-antee Funds for Loans . To date, CEChas granted around RON 2 million (EUR448,000) of loans to SMEs and is con-sidering additional loans worth RON 4million (EUR 896,000). SMEs that havebeen operating for at least three yearscan take out loans of up to RON 5 million(EUR 1.1 million) from CEC to financetheir working capital. The loans have atwo-year maturity that can be extendedby one year, and the government canguarantee up to 50 percent of the loanvalue.

… while BCR aims to lendsSMEs EUR 117 mlnBanca Comerciala Romana (BCR), thelender controlled by Austria’s Erste Bank,will provide operating capital credit fa-cilities of up to RON 5 million (EUR 1.1million) to local small and medium-sized enterprises, as part of a governmentscheme that guarantees bank loans. Thelender aims to provide EUR 117 millionworth of loans backed by the government.The government secures up to 50 percentof the overall financing value, but notthe interest or commission, while the

loan guarantee premium covers 1.99percent of the guarantee value annually.Loans will be extended with a three-month ROBOR interest rate plus a marginof not more than 2.5 percent a year, pluscommission of a maximum of 0.7 percentannually. The repayment period is upto 24 months, although this can be ex-tended by 12 months, without exceedingthe total duration of the program.

BRD plans 4 percent hike inlending to EUR 6.4 bln this yearBRD Groupe Societe Generale is aimingto increase its lending by 4 percent thisyear, on the back of enhanced demandfrom the corporate sector. Lending inthe retail segment is set to remain sub-dued, according to this year’s budget,approved by the general shareholders’meeting late last week. The lender ex-pects to return to the black in 2014, afterreporting total losses of RON 716 million(EUR 160 million) in the past two years,due to higher provisioning. The bank’sauditor this year will be Deloitte.

FINANCINGRomania gets CHF 2.15 million

from Switzerland to fight money launderingSwitzerland will grant non-reimbursablefinancing of CHF 2.15 million to Romaniato assist the latter in the fight againstmoney laundering, writes Agerpres. Thegrant is part of a program of non-re-fundable financial assistance worth CHF181 million (about EUR 150 million). TheCHF 20 million Romanian-Swiss programfor SMEs, which provides investmentloans, was launched in early 2014, aspart of this agreement.

ITEUR 17 mln tender for cloudcomputing platform suspendedThe National Council for Solving Complaints has suspended the tenderinitiated by the National Institute for Research & Development in Infor-matics for the implementation of a cloud computing platform for public institutions, due to a series of flaws inthe documentation, according to Hotnews.ro The contract – put at EUR 17 million (RON 76 million) and to be financed from European funds –

covers the acquisition of the hardwareand software infrastructure for the project, preparation and management,services for the development and implementation of the cloud computingplatform and the training of the staff that will manage the data centerand platform. The flaws were pointedout by the company Astra Sisteme Integrate.

TELECOMState-owned Radiocom aims tobecome telecom playerRomania’s national radiocommunica-tions company, Radiocom, is preparingto enter the telecom market by launchinga range of integrated communicationsand television services. “Radiocom mustchange to provide a complete packageof internet, television and telephoneservices,” said Razvan Cotovelea, min-ister for the information society, in aninterview with Economica.net. Accord-ing to the minister, by the end of the se-mester the company’s strategy will bepresented to the government, and willalso be made public.

‘Ark at him: sailing into troubled waters Prime minister Victor Ponta visited several towns and villages in Teleorman county, southern Romania, that wereaffected by the floods over Easter. The PM told fellow cabinet members that “we should thank God” that the localconsequences of the deluge were less serious than elsewhere in Europe, adding that the local authorities’ “good or-ganization” was a factor, according to Mediafax.

Courtesy of G

ov.ro

4 NEWS www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

POLITICS

MPs award themselves EUelections holiday

R&D

Artificial blood project in Cluj usescrowdfunding to finance research

tions, not national ones. As a result thereis no justification for MPs in Romania’sParliament to go on the campaign trail.This is not happening in any other ofthe 27 states of the EU. It is a peculiar ifnot stupid reason,” said political analystCristian Parvulescu, quoted by radiostation RFI Romania.

Parvulescu suggested the move couldfurther tarnish the image of Parliament,which is already the least popular insti-tution with Romanians.

Crin Antonescu, PNL president, saidParliament’s decision did not have anyjustification and was unprecedented.Antonescu, who will run for presidentin November, noted that MPs took twoweeks off in 2012 to work on the parlia-mentary elections, which was theirlongest vacation.

According to Valeriu Zgonea, presi-dent of the Chamber of Deputies, MPswere last week set to debate 200 billsthat have rejection reports but neededa final vote.

“Romania needs this battle, and it alsoneeds the legal process. As party mem-bers, we MPs are obliged to work oncampaigns for our political parties, whilewe are obliged to go to our constituencieseach week but also come to Parliamentto pass bills. This is why I need to findthe (e.n. right) mix,” said Zgonea lastweek, quoted by Mediafax newswire.

Zgonea defended MPs, claiming theywere not using the EU Parliament cam-paign to avoid work and had alreadypassed 39 of the 84 draft bills submittedby the government during this parlia-mentary session.

Turnout at the European electionsfell in Romania from 29.5 percent in2007 to 27.6 percent in 2009 – the secondlowest in Europe, just behind Slovakia.The average turnout rate in the EU stoodat 43 percent in 2009. ∫

Ovidiu Posirca

Romanian MPs last week voted togive themselves a month-longbreak from debating bills in Par-

liament and will instead work in theirconstituencies to prepare for the Euro-pean Parliament elections on May 25.By-elections will be held in some wardson the same day to fill vacant positionsin the Chamber of Deputies. The LiberalParty (PNL) voted against the break,while the right-wing PDL abstained.

“We are talking about European elec-

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WEEK AHEAD

April 28Focus on Employment&HR The fifth edition of Business Review’sFocus on Employment&HR takes placeat Ramada Plaza. The Romanian gov-ernment has already negotiated an in-crease of the gross minimum wagewith the International Monetary Fundthis year, and the New Salary Law dueto come into force in 2014 will alsoshake up the market. See what otherlegal changes are in store in the humanresources field and hear the experts’take on these issues. Register forFocus on Employment&HR at busi-ness-review.eu or email events@busi-ness-review.ro.

Free EU entry for Republic of MoldovacitizensThe European Parliament has formallyadopted a decision to allow Moldovancitizens with biometric passports totravel visa-free in the Schengen zoneas of April 28. The decision was signedin Brussels on April 3.

Euro election campaignOn April 25 the election campaign forMEPs for the new European Parlia-ment kicked off. See business-review.eu for the full list of Romaniancandidates.

April 29EU energy efficiency deadlineEU member states have to submit theircustomized National Energy EfficiencyAction Plans (NEEAPs) to the Commis-sion by today. A new Energy EfficiencyDirective (2012/27/EU - EED) has beenput in place to pursue the overall ob-jective of reducing the EU’s primary en-ergy consumption by 20 percent by2020. The NEEAP due in 2014 will bethe first report under the EED.

Downtime: MPs want one month off to work on the European Parliament elections

The artificial blood project currentlybeing developed by a team of re-searchers from the Babes-Bolyai

University in Cluj is seeking financingvia crowdfunding.

Romanian researcher Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu, associate professor at theFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical En-gineering, and his team set up a specialcrowdfunding platform three weeks agoto raise funds for the project, which hasalready attracted nearly RON 9,000 indonations, according to Digi24.ro.

Silaghi-Dumitrescu and his team areworking simultaneously on two projectsthat, if successful, will conclude a re-search chapter that has been fascinatingscientists for decades: synthesizing blood.

“There is no doubt that eventually

such a product will be successfully introduced into medical practice. The main obstacles are eliminating the side effects, but with every roundof clinical tests – of which the first took place in the 80s – there are fewerand fewer negative results. I think it isunavoidable that, if not us, someoneelse will eventually put a successfulproduct on the market,” Silaghi-Du-mitrescu told BR.

One of the projects he and his teamare working on involves hemoglobin,while the other involves hemerythrin,a rare protein prelevated from sea wormsthat live on the beach.

So far, approximately RON 1 millionwas spent on the research between 2007and 2010, and less between 2010 and

2013, “because we worked with remainsfrom other projects and a lot of volun-teering from students,” Silaghi previouslytold BR.

“I estimate that another RON 1 millionwill be necessary for lab tests on humancells and animals. Regarding the scalingup that will ensue, it is hard to put for-ward a figure. I have not made the cal-culations, but it will clearly be muchmore,” he said.

At the end of 2013, the Ministry ofEducation allocated RON 200,000 to ar-tificial blood research. This March, duringthe Cluj Innovation Days, educationminister Mihnea Costoiu announcedthat the ministry would earmark an ad-ditional RON 400,000 for 2014. ∫

Diana Petrescu

presidency.ro

TAXES

Government says it can scrap 70 taxesreinvested by companies into equipmentsuch as machines and work installationswill be made tax exempt. The measurewill be applied by December 2015.

The exemption may be calculatedquarterly or annually, as applicable, andthe amount of profit that qualifies fortax relief will be allocated to the supplyof reserves up to the accounting profitat the end of the financial year.

Petrescu told BR in an interview lastmonth that the measure would cost thestate RON 28 million (EUR 6.2 million)this year, if it is rolled out in July.

The tax exemption had been soughtby the business community, along witha reduction of social insurance contri-butions by 5 percentage points for em-ployers and the lowering of VAT on basicfood products.

Businesses call for predictable taxationAmCham Romania, the business advo-cacy group, has presented its tax-relatedpriorities during the first AmCham mem-bers’ meeting at large with the ministerof finance, held on April 15.

In AmCham’s view, the priorities thatshould be reflected in the tax legislation

going forward include maintaining thecurrent flat tax of 16 percent for compa-nies and individuals as a key competitiveadvantage and the real reform of taxauthority ANAF.

Companies are waiting for the au-thorities to finalize the rewriting of theFiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Codeto which AmCham members contributedlast year, along with other business ad-vocacy groups.

The government should strengthen

and expand tax incentives for activitiesin IT and research & development,and should put in place aid schemes toboost the creation of new jobs in keysectors.

Companies also want modern andsimplified tax legislation and are callingfor the reduction of taxes that harm thebusiness environment such as the specialtax on constructions and the local taxon buildings. ∫

Ovidiu Posirca

Minister of finance Ioana Petrescu during the AmCham members’ meeting

The Ministry of Finance said lastweek it has identified 70 taxesand charges that could be scrapped

with limited impact on the state budget,in a bid to ease the fiscal burden oncompanies. It did not provide a time-frame for their removal.

Authorities said the move would de-prive the state coffers of close to EUR500,000.

“Today we took an important step to-wards a simplified taxation system, as Ipromised on the first days of my mandate.We will not stop here and I am workingon the instruments to simplify taxation,”said Ioana Petrescu, minister of finance,in a statement. Petrescu, a Harvardalumna appointed to the top job lastmonth, said she would discuss scrappingtaxes in various sectors ranging fromagriculture and the environment to re-gional development with the relevantministers.

The prime minister, Victor Ponta,said that another 30-40 taxes could bescrapped, according to Mediafaxnewswire. He announced in April thatthe tax exemption on reinvested profitwould be rolled out in July.

According to a draft bill, the profit

NEW S 5www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

plopeanuphoto.ro/AmC

ham

6 NEWS www.business-review.euBusiness Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

Levent Yuksel has been ap-pointed generalmanager at Pep-siCo for theGreater Balkansand SEE franchisearea, a newly es-tablished division,

which comprises 14 countries, in-cluding Romania. The GreaterBalkans business units within Pep-siCo will be coordinated fromBucharest, where Yuksel will remain.Serhan Celebi, currently senior di-rector, Balkans CFO, will becomesenior director, Greater BalkansCFO. Yuksel, a Turkey Technical University graduate, has been working for PepsiCo since 1995. Before that, he worked for Pricewa-terhouseCoopers in Istanbul and The Hague.

Giovanni Luca Soma will join the BRD Societe Generaleboard of directors for a four-yearmandate, in an appointment madeduring the general shareholders’meeting last week. BRD requires

WHO’S NEWS

BNR approval to make the nominationofficial. Soma is currently regional di-rector for the lender’s Europe, interna-tional bank division and financial serv-ices. He started working for SocGen in2002 as regional director and later be-came general manager of ALD Interna-tional. In 2010 he was named managerof SocGen’s consumer loans, opera-tional leasing and fleet managementdivision.

Aurelian Dochiais the second candidate selected by theBRD Societe Generale shareholderslast week to join the board of directors.Dochia is a member in the board of di-rectors at BRD Finance IFN and an as-sociate at local consultancy ConceptConsultanta Economica si de Afaceri.He has sat on the board of directors atfirms within BRD group, at SIF Munte-nia, Fondul Proprietatii de Stat, and atthe Romanian Center for EconomicPolicies (CEROPE).

Horatiu Dan Dumitru has joined the law firm Bondoc & Aso-ciatii as a managing counsel. Horatiuhas been a member of the Bucharest

Bar since 2000 andholds a PhD in CivilLaw. Before joiningthe firm, he wasmanaging associateat Musat & Asociatii.Dumitru’s expertiseranges from IT law,

corporate/M&A (including privatiza-tions) to constitutional law, administra-tive law and legislative process man-agement.

Ionut Stircu has joined Bondoc & Asociatii as a jun-ior associate within the competitionand real estate departments. Stircuholds an LLM in Business Law fromthe Madrid Complutense University.Before joining the firm, he worked for aBig Four company’s affiliated law firmin Romania.

Ana-Maria Bogdan will be the first general manager forR/GA Romania, part of the InterpublicGroup. Her responsibilities will includedeveloping, consolidating and growingthe local team. She will also representthe local branch on the R/GA Global

board of directors.Between 2011 and2014, Bogdanworked as a man-aging partner forGrapefruit, afterpreviously workingfor ING (as internet

channel development manager),Kanal D, Altex (e-business director)and Zapp (marketing communicationspecialist).

Giuliano Menassireplaces GiuseppeCangelossi as theCEO of PirelliTyres Romania,with the latter tak-ing up a managerialposition at PirelliAPAC (Asia Pacific).

Menassi will hold onto his position asmanufacturing vice-president in thePirelli Group. At Pirelli Romania hissecond-in-command will be AyhanGuven, as deputy country managerand industrial director. Menassi andGuven started working for PirelliTyres Romania in 2005.

BR welcomes information for Who’s News. Submissions may be edited fo r length and clarity. Get in touch at simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

NEWS 7www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

INVESTMENT

Looking for business outside Bucharest?

Production, Thyssenkrupp Bilstein Com-pa, Harting Romania Manufacturing,Brandl Ro, Austrian Frauenthal Auto-motive Sibiu and numerous other smallerinvestors. Continental’s plant in Sibiuhas grown to become the largest businessin the county based on turnover in 2012,according to data from the NationalTrade Register Office.

The German manufacturer decidedupon Sibiu in 2003 when it was lookingto extend its business in Romania witha new electronics factory. “Sibiu was agood option from a logistics perspectiveand because of the access it provided tothe European highway network. It waswell positioned for deliveries to southernGermany where most of our clients are(...),” representatives of Continental Au-tomotive Systems told BR.

The food and textile industries arealso well established in Sibiu, Klaus Io-hannis, the city’s mayor, told BR. Furtherinvestments in these fields are expected,as well as in the service sector, he added.

While advantages such as the strategiclocation, local infrastructure, skilledworkforce and the county’s strong Ger-man background remain key ingredientsin attracting investors, the authoritiestoo have had a role. The opening of aunique county bureau for investmentsthis May to reduce and simplify invest-ment procedures is just one of the ini-tiatives that Sibiu County Council hasto attract more investors, council presi-dent Ioan Cindrea told BR. Also, in Junethe authorities will host an internationalbusiness forum where dozens of ambassadors and economic attacheshave been invited to participate to learnof “the numerous business and invest-ment opportunities Sibiu offers,” headded. ∫

Simona Bazavan

An international business forum will be held in Sibiu this June

To find out what the economy lookslike outside the capital, BR islaunching a series of supplements

dedicated to the main developmentpoles around the country. The first issuefocuses on Sibiu County. It features in-terviews with the heads of Sibiu CountyCouncil and City Hall and representativesof the local business community, a rank-ing of the main players in the countybased on turnover, facts and figures,and an overview of local tourism.

So, why Sibiu? A strategic positionin the heart of Romania, good infra-structure access and the promise of fur-ther developments in this direction, askilled workforce, support from the au-thorities and the local quality of lifehave persuaded companies active invarious industries to invest in Sibiu, BRhas learned.

Sibiu, the county town and head-quarters of the local administration, istoday a dynamic and modern city whichhas established a well rounded identityin Romania and abroad. A cornerstoneof the city’s development has been itsdesignation as European Capital of Cul-ture in 2007. The local administrationmade good use of the funds availablefor the event and invested in infrastruc-ture works and promotion in Europeand at home. This has benefitted thelocal tourism industry and the localeconomy more widely, putting the cityon the map for tourists and investorsalike.

Over the years Sibiu has attractedinvestors from various industries. Ger-man manufactures in particular, espe-cially those active in the automotivesector, have found Sibiu to their liking.The Transylvanian county is today hometo players like Continental, MarquardtSchaltsysteme, Takata Sibiu, Kuhnke

Photo: Silviu P

al

Wires crossed over infrastructure projectsfor SibiuNext year should see the completion of the Sibiu-Nad-lac highway and the start of works on the Pitesti-Sibiuroute, both part of the A1 corridor. But judging by theauthorities’ contradictory comments, there could bemore delays along the road.

∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN

Sibiu’s strategic position and the accessit provides to the European highwaynetwork are the main reasons big in-vestors like automotive manufacturerContinental have chosen to invest there.The county is crossed by the A1 highway,part of the Pan-European transport cor-ridor IV, which when completed willconnect Bucharest to Nadlac on Roma-nia’s border with Hungary, and the fu-ture A3 highway which will connectBucharest with the north-west of thecountry. Sibiu is also connected to Eu-rope via an international airport whichlast year was used by a total of 222, 827passengers.

Sibiu’s County Council plans tospend one third of its 2014 total budgetof about EUR 72 million on develop-ment works. “These funds, to whichwill be added EU money for variousprojects, will go mainly towards the de-velopment of the road infrastructure,the A1 and A3 highways and severalcounty and local roads which we wantto complete by 2016,” Ioan Cindrea,president of Sibiu County Council, toldBR. The development of Sibiu Interna-tional Airport, both in terms of passen-ger traffic and the construction of acargo terminal, is another target on thelocal authorities’ agenda.

When the A1 is fully completed, Ro-mania’s location will become even moreof an asset, but judging by the progressmade by the central authorities andpoliticians’ recent contradictory state-ments on the matter, the actual comple-tion is still a long way off.

Sibiu-Nadlac highway crawlstowards destinationThe first, second, and fourth segmentsof the Orastie-Sibiu highway (82 km),part of the A1, were finished in Decem-ber 2013. The opening of the third seg-ment was delayed after the NationalRoad Company and the contractor, Ital-ian firm Impregilo, failed to reach atechnical and financial agreement fol-lowing mudslides in the area. The min-ister of transport, Dan Sova, announcedin March that the contract would be ter-minated and the 22km completed in2015. Just a month later he then saidthat the contract would not be termi-nated and the segment would be open

to traffic this November at no additionalcost. In April Sova told BR that the en-tire Sibiu-Nadlac segment of the A1highway (350km) would be finished inthe fourth quarter of 2015.

Pitesti-Sibiu highway awaitsgreen lightAs for the start of works on the Pitesti-Sibiu segment, the only part of the A1where there has been no progress in re-cent years, the authorities have beenbatting the matter back and forth forseveral months, with claim followed bycounterclaim.

Last December the highway wastaken off the list of priority infrastruc-ture projects Romania plans to build by2018 due to high construction costs andan out-of-date feasibility study datingback to 2008. However, in March, theMinistry of EU Funds cited the projectas a priority in terms of infrastructureprojects for which Romania wants to at-tract EU funds during the 2014-2020framework. Sova said it would take twoyears until a new feasibility study isdone and works could start no earlierthan 2017. He was then contradicted byPM Victor Ponta who said, following avisit to the Dacia factory in Mioveni,that works would start in 2015 and becompleted by 2020 or even earlier.

Whether works will actually startand finish on time or the project willdisappear amid more political infightingremains to be seen. But all stakeholdersagree that the completion of the A1 willbenefit not only Sibiu, but the entirelocal economy.

simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

Construction of the Pitesti-Sibiu highway could start next year

EMPLOYMENT 9www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

Authorities start crackdownon informal labor, move toboost employmentIn March, the Romanian government pledged to start a series of controls to root out cases of undeclared workand tax evasion, as part of a pilot project. A few days ago, the start of the project was announced for May 1. Astate aid framework that will subsidize salaries at firms that generate at least 20 jobs was also adopted.

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

With the stated target of preventing anderadicating undeclared/under-declaredlabor, supporting good-faith competi-tion in business and protecting employ-ees by enhancing social security, theNational Agency for Fiscal Administra-tion (ANAF) will start to rollout the proj-ect, based on its commitments to theEuropean Union and the International

Romanian authorities recognize informal work as a problem they need to address

Monetary Fund, according to institu-tion officials.

The scheme to tackle black marketlabor, which will start on May 1, willcover a significant share of companiesin Ploiesti and Brasov.

ANAF has called upon employers toensure they comply with the stipula-tions in the Labor Code, Fiscal Code andFiscal Procedure Code within 90 days ofthe start of the scheme.

The controls will target mainly the

companies most prone to avoiding so-cial contributions, health contributionsand income taxes.

The campaigns from the Labor In-spectorate are “not always well receivedin the market,” Marilena Balabuti,deputy chief inspector in the Labor In-spection Office (ITM), tells BR, “sincethe exercising of authority by the stateis rejected by those that are subject to it.”

Based on the results, ANAF will ex-pand this scheme to the entire country

from January 1, 2015.The issue of informal work is not un-

known to Romanian authorities, whichrecognize it as problem.

Companies that are most prone tohiring people without papers are mainlyactive in construction, services, andtrade and security services, Balabutitells BR. Campaigns to eradicate thisphenomenon have been carried out byauthorities targeting these categories offirms.

10 EMPLOYMENT www.business-review.euBusiness Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

Which are the advantages of havingSHRM certification?There are several. One is that it is inter-nationally recognized and ensures topcore knowledge in the HR field. Themanuals and training programs arechanged yearly, and it fits different HRprofessionals’ needs. It represents aguarantee for employers that they willget best practices in the field. It is alsoabout belonging to an elite group of HRprofessionals.

Does SHRM certification guarantee thevalue of an HR professional?The certifications offered by the Societyof HR Management (SHRM) give you,your employer, and your clients the cer-tainty that you have the knowledge andskills to perform your job at the highestlevel. They certify not only for Roman-ian employers but for international onesthat you have mastered your profession,similar to the CFA or ACCA certifications.Such certifications also prove that yourknowledge is current, as you have torenew it every three years.

Building a salary structure is covered bythe SHRM. What are the other subjectsand how would you briefly describethem?Building a salary structure is one of themany topics covered by the training weoffer for these certifications as well as bythe six manuals accompanying thetraining program and provided by theSHRM. This topic is covered in thefourth manual, Reward Management.In terms of topics, you name it and I betit is included! Just to mention a few:HR’s Strategic Role; Critical Manage-ment Skills for HR Professionals; Man-aging Technology Trends, StrategicPlanning Process and Aligning the HRFunction with the Strategic Plan, andEnvironmental Scanning. All these top-ics I mention are just from the first mod-ule: Business Management and Strategy.

raluca.comanescu@business-review.ro

3QRoxana ToaderSenior ConsultantAscendis

Anca Grigorescu, partner and coor-dinator of the labor law and benefitsdepartment, and Cristina Randjak,senior coordinating attorney at bpvGrigorescu Stefanica, tell BR thatunder-the-table labor is “a reason forconcern” in Romania, since officialdata show that approximately 1 mil-lion people are working on the blackmarket.

“Informal work takes place at companies of all sizes. Most undocumented employees work for small companies, but Romania is confronted with undeclared laboreven in large companies, with more than 100 employees,” the two attorneys tell BR.

The measures taken by the author-ities should mainly focus on the rea-sons why companies hire peoplewithout papers. Balabuti thinks thatby removing the causes, the effectscan also be eradicated.

“Work on the black market is the ef-fect of multiple reasons such as taxa-tion, force of habit, workers’ lack ofinformation about the benefits of in-dividual labor contracts, and employ-ers’ fear of assuming the obligationsstipulated in such contracts,” she out-lines.

The labor authorities are also attempting to send warning signalsacross all channels about the negativeeffects of informal labor, by looking at the taxation and reducing the red tape in this field, explains Balabuti.

Under the Labor Code, an individ-ual labor contract is signed with the consent of both parties. It must be drafted in writing in Romanian,and is the responsibility of the employer. Before the employee starts work, the contract should be registered with the relevant authorities and the employee should receive a copy.

Balabuti points out that the LaborCode makes it illegal to employ up to five people without signing in-dividual labor contracts. Penaltiesrange between RON 10,000 and RON 20,000 for each identified infor-mal worker.

The bpv Grigorescu Stefanica at-torneys questioned by BR say an ini-tiative is underway to modify theLabor Code’s penalties for informallabor.

Instead of the above-mentionedfines, the bill aims to impose penal-ties of RON 5,000, plus the total sumof the taxes and contributions thatthe employer should have paid overthe previous year, had the informalworker been hired legally, on mini-mum wage.

An employer who flouts the lawshould pay these contributions aswell.

There is, however, a series of stepsthat the Romanian authorities couldtake to tackle the phenomenon of in-formal labor.

Asked by BR, Catalin Micu, manag-ing associate at Zamfirescu Racoti &

Partners, suggests the law could bechanged to give tax breaks to employ-ers who hire a minimum number ofpeople, so the taxes payable by the employer would fall, proportion-ally, as more staff members were taken on.

Other measures would be to ex-tend the use of temporary contractsand make it easier for employers toend individual labor contracts unilat-erally for economic or operationalreasons, with the dismissed employeegiven several months’ pay in compen-sation, suggests Micu.

To crack down on informal laborand encourage employment, a gov-ernment plan to subsidize salaries atfirms that generate a minimum of 20jobs was approved last Wednesday.The support will be provided for twoyears.

According to government officials,the new state aid scheme will grant non-reimbursable financing,which will cover salary costs (not ex-ceeding the level of the gross averagesalary) over a period of two consecu-tive years, where at least 20 new jobsare created through an initial invest-ment.

The financing agreements throughthis framework can be issued until the end of 2020, and the de min-imis payments will be made over 2015-2025, within the allocatedbudget.

“For companies that create at least20 jobs, the state will pay half of thetotal value of salary expenses. We arenot talking about reducing taxes orsocial contribution, but half of every-thing that is commonly called a salary,”said PM Victor Ponta.

The state first announced themeasure at the beginning of February.

“2014 does not look set be a year ofmajor modifications to the labor leg-islation. However, there are now sev-eral draft bills to modify the LaborCode on the agenda of the two cham-bers of Parliament. Examples includebills to establish new legal holidays,and to modify individual labor con-tracts in the public sector, the rightsof temporary employees and themaximum length of individual tem-porary labor contracts, which havebeen subject to interpretation since2011,” said Grigorescu and Randjak.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

Commerce, customerservice, IT yield mostentry-level jobsl The largest recruitment portal in Romania, eJobs.ro, has an-nounced that almost 99 percent of the jobs advertised on its portalare seeking IT-literate candidates, namely those proficient in the MSOffice package. The site has more than entry-level 4,700 vacancies incommercial domains such as sales, trade and distribution. Moreover3,800 vacancies are in customer service for speakers of foreign lan-guages. The third most advertised field for entry-level positions is IT,with almost 2,850 vacancies in hardware, software and online.

l Furthermore, a study published by the Romanian Agency for Qual-ity Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) in 2012 found that 80percent of graduates are working in a different field from their de-gree, and 75 percent are unhappy in their chosen profession. Ac-cording to the same study, more than a quarter of young peopleunder 25 are unemployed.

l In order to help teenagers choose a career, Samsung Romania iscurrently sending its experts around the country to provide 8,000students with career advice. In collaboration with Dan Petre, coordi-nator of the platform www.pemeserie.ro, which helps teenagers dis-cover which career would suit them, Samsung will run three types ofpsychological tests, internationally recognized as relevant to voca-tional or career orientation.

Oana Vasiliu

EMPLOYMENT 11www.business-review.ro Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

Renault HR director: ‘Focusnow on quality not volume’With a workforce of approximately 17,000, Renault is one of the country’s main employers. Dana Oprisan, head of human resources at Renault Romania, told BR what drives the company’s training and employmentpolicies.

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

Is Renault hiring? How many peopledoes the company employ in Romaniaright now? Between 2000 and 2013, Renault in-vested over EUR 2.2 billion in Roma-nia to develop a complete auto chain,from design to engineering, car manufacturing and sales. In parallelwith these investments, human resources are indispensable when itcomes to new and skilled jobs.

At the end of 2013, Renault Roma-nia had approximately 17,000 em-ployees. We expect activity to remainstable in 2014, and the number of em-ployees to be similar to last year. Re-nault Romania continues its strategyto attract talent.

What type of specialists are you seeking right now? While the company previously went through intense development,currently we can say that we are going through a consolidation period.The focus now is on quality ratherthan volumes, so we are looking for people who are highly skilled incertain fields.

We are present at job fairs acrossthe country, on recruitment sites and social networks, with vacanciesin electrical engineering, mechanicalengineering, electronics, telecommu-nications, road vehicles, and the management and engineering of technological systems.

Will you be further developing the R&Dteam in Romania? The Renault Technologie Roumanie(RTR) teams in Romania are currentlymade up of 2,300 engineers and technicians, distributed betweenBucharest (design), Titu (testing) and Mioveni (industrialization). RTR’smain responsibility is to develop andadjust the entry range for the interna-tional level.

What other benefits are included inemployee packages? In the area of health benefits, as ofthis year all the approximately 17,000employees have health insurance.They get free access to a wide range of medical services from one of

the top private clinic networks in Romania.

In 2013, Dacia employees receivednon-salary benefits that cost the com-pany nearly an additional EUR 30 mil-lion per year.

These include Easter and Christmas bonuses (RON 957 grossand RON 1,006 gross, respectively),RON 60 of gift vouchers for all female employees on March 8, Christ-mas gift vouchers (RON 60), a profit-based bonus (RON 1,680 gross),holiday bonus (RON 1,341 gross), mealtickets, a free hot meal for operators,subsidized transport, rest and treat-ment vouchers, various forms of sup-port in the event of a wedding, death,etc.

They also get days off paid at basicrate, aside from legal or religious hol-idays, in the following situations:family events such as the birth of achild, wedding or death, movinghouse or for blood donations.

The period off varies in these cases between one day (in the event of the death of a grandchild,sibling or parent) and five days (forthe birth or adoption of a child, thedeath of a spouse, child, parent or in-law).

What training do employees undergoat Renault? Renault Romania has invested ap-proximately EUR 36 million in train-ing its employees.

The group has created a complextraining mechanism: there are two training centers (one in Mioveniand the other in Bucharest), 565 inter-nal trainers with a company back-ground and partnerships withprofessional training providersaround the country.

In the past 11 years, company employees have benefitted from 6.5 million training hours in manufacturing, quality, engineering,

logistics, management and support,on 780 specialty topics.

Both new and experienced em-ployees are given training. The formerfollow a professional integration pro-gram at the company, and subse-quently specialize in their area ofexpertise.

Employees with significant experi-ence in the group are periodicallygiven training to keep them up tospeed with the latest developments intheir field or to keep pace with the ex-pansion of the group at internationallevel.

The company accords great impor-tance to the quality of its manage-ment. To this end, the trainingprovided by Renault Romania im-proved in 2013 with new programs formanagers.

This is part of a five-year manage-ment training strategy, at all levels.One of the conditions for success onan increasingly competitive market isto identify and develop the managersof tomorrow.

With this common goal, RenaultRomania and Achieve Global havedrafted a project to develop leader-ship and business skills in peopleidentified as talents.

To what extent do Romanian employ-ees specialize at foreign subsidiaries? Over 2009-2013, we organized for theemployees of Renault Romania a totalof 200 international missions toFrance, Morocco, Russia, India andAlgeria. Currently, we have 106 peo-ple on international deployments (asexpatriates and on long-term assign-ments).

The results have been very posi-tive, as all those posted abroad stillwork for the group.

On this topic, I would also mention the exchange of experienceat the level of the Renault Group. Since Romania is the mother country for the international production of the entry-level range,Renault Group employees from various corners of the world whereRenault has a presence, such as Morocco, Russia and Algeria, come toRomania to specialize in various ac-tivities.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

12 CITY www.business-review.euBusiness Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

Write angle: takingportraits of the authorsWith a confessed passion for literature, Argentinean-born photographer Daniel Mordzinski has been photographing writers for the past 30 years. His pictures come with a trademark: he takes his subjects out oftheir usual writer’s pose and positions them in unusual settings or stances, which he says is key to capturing anoriginal take of a profession that is often difficult to capture in a still image.

∫ SIMONA FODOR

Mario Vargas Llosa writing by candle-light on the side of a bed, SalmanRushdie inside a bathtub, and UmbertoEco pulling up the straps of his pantsare just some of the photographs thatcan be filed as a “fotinski”, the trade-mark of the photographer who hasearned the good will, acclaim andfriendship of many literary greats.While Mordzinski insists that he em-ploys no particular method, he hasmanaged to build an impressive collec-tion of portraits of writers from all overthe world. The names often read like aWho’s Who of Spanish-language litera-ture: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar,Luis Sepúlveda, Antonio Muñoz Molina,Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa andGabriel García Márquez among manyothers.

But it is not just stars he has beenphotographing. Mordzinski is a regularat literary festivals around the worldand has served as the official photogra-pher of the Hay Festival, among otherevents.

The local writers he has added to hiscollection of literary figures so far arethe German-Romanian winner of the2009 Nobel Prize for Literature HertaMuller, whom he photographed in 2013,and novelist, poet and dramatist DanLungu, whose portrait he took at Italy’sTorino book fair in 2012.

With the photographic territorycomes a host of anecdotes on his sub-jects which he has recounted in variousinterviews. Before his first photo exhi-bition in Paris, as a rookie, he left aphone message for Julio Cortázar,whom he did not know, telling him hewould be happy if the writer wouldcome to the opening. And Cortázar did.At the 2011 Hay Festival in Wales hecaptured V.S. Naipaul and Paul Ther-oux as they shook hands for the firsttime after 15 years of enmity.

How do you work? How do you stage aphoto?There is no Mordzinski method. Everyencounter is like a blank page. When-

ever I take the photo of a writer the re-sult is the writer as seen by me. When Isay “seen by me” I mean the photo isthe outcome of my readings, of my dis-position, and this is also what allowsmy work to remain alive. There are notwo similar encounters. What it comes down to is many years ofexperience and a lot of gratitude tojournalism. Right now, I’m at a point inmy life where I can choose to do thethings I like to do. Many times, my jour-nalistic side and my expressive oneoverlap. I think I owe a lot to journalism

because it left me with a speed of analy-sis. When I enter a place, I can immedi-ately tell where the light is coming fromand what its visual potential is. Ofcourse, I can often be wrong!

I also owe to journalism the speed atwhich I work. The journey I propose towriters is original and fun, one withoutrisks, but above all it is swift because Iwork very fast. And another importantelement that journalism taught me ishow not to let myself be intimidated.After having photographed so manyroyals and celebrities I can focus on the

essential, that is the individual I have infront of me. Because often the emotioncan be paralyzing, as can the technique.

How do you decide if a photo is worthshowing? How do you make the selection,both in general, and for this particularexhibition? All selections are arbitrary and incom-plete, but you have to make a choice. Ithas happened, more than once, that Ilater realized that a photo I had selectedwas not the best one because I hadmade the selection in a rush for time orwanting to see the result faster. Attimes, I exaggerated – for example withmy first portrait, which was the one of[Jorge Luis] Borges. I used to take ana-log photos, and that day I had shot acouple of rolls, from which I chose onephoto that hadn’t completely con-vinced me but I chose it because it wasthe only one in the series where Borgeswas alone. For a long time I was both-ered by a hand that had entered theframe and twenty years later, perhapsbecause of my experience, what I hadlearned traveling and looking, I realizedthat what was bothering me was whatreally brought value to the picture. Tosum it up, photography does notchange; nor do we.

As for the selection for Bucharest,the exhibition is an itinerant one. It is alike a diplomatic passport, in the goodsense of the word, because this exhibi-tion serves as an ambassador of litera-ture, feelings and passion. It is apassport for a borderless country,which is the Spanish language, and a passport for 35 years of my life as a letraherido [e.n. a person who is veryfond of reading and literature].

This exhibition originated in Frank-furt and has toured many Cervantes In-stitutes around the world. It always hasmore or less the same format: around70 portraits, depending on the venue.

You can imagine the difficulty I havein choosing, the moment I have to ask:what do I go for: Borges or [Julio] Cor-tazar? So I always have this dilemma: tooffer the most complete aspect of mywork and strike a balance between, forinstance, Spain and Latin America.

Photo: Luis Sepulveda

The final touches: Mordzinski has been photographing writers around the worldfor the past 30 years

CITY 13www.business-review.eu Business Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

The 1978 portrait of Jorge Luis Borges, taken during the filming of the documentary Borges para millones (Borges for Millions), on which Mordzinski was workingas second assistant to director Ricardo Wullicher

How would you say your photographyhas changed over time, if at all?We are the protagonists of our ownlives and in this case I find it difficult totalk about a transformation or a period.What I can say is that, as the years go by,my work has gained more freedom be-cause they [the writers] let me do whatI like. At the same time, it has also be-come more committed because I feelgrateful for this liberty I have in mywork and I’m afraid of letting themdown. Before we were talking aboutformulas or the Mordzinski method. Iwould say there isn’t any, but what’simportant for me is the respect I feel forthe authors and that the intelligenthumor and the irony never transforminto something ridiculous. This I thinkis fundamental.

Has the label “the photographer of writ-ers” changed the way authors relate toyou?Before anything else, let’s agree this isnot a label I came up with myself. Thefirst time someone brought it up Ifound it very ostentatious. I swore notto repeat or use it and then, the otherday, while trying to answer a question Ilabeled myself as such because it was

easy, because it had a headline qualityand it summed up what was difficult tosummarize. And now I use it myself –better like this.

Anyhow, I am the photographer ofwhat I consider some of the best liter-ary festivals in the world, which are theHay Festivals. There are Hay Festivalsin many Latin American cities and inSpain but it originated in Wales. Manyauthors here are international ones,Anglo-Saxon authors, and I realizedthat they didn’t know me.

So it is an exercise in humility and seduction convincing V.S. Naipaulor Ian McEwan to accept my proposalto photograph them without theirknowing me or having seen my photos.

What did you learn about writers whiletaking their photos, if such a generaliza-tion is possible?I would say they are human beings justlike dentists or football players, thatthey are as fragile as butterflies and thatperhaps the profession of writer ismaybe the least easy to photograph inthe world. Starting from this idea I in-vented this Mordzinski non-method,which doesn’t exist, but if it did itwould consist of taking the writer out

Photo: D

aniel Mordzinski

The fotinski is a fun photographshowing the author outside hisor her customary writer’s pose.Mordzinski explains the impor-tance of ensuring the humor orirony that often accompaniesthese photos never crosses intothe ridiculous.

of his or her writer’s pose and propos-ing a new pose which doesn’t gothrough the common places or clichésof literature.

What is your next photo engagementwith a writer? Is there anyone you wouldlike to photograph but have not managedto yet?My schedule is quite full. I would likevery much to do a portrait of a writer inBucharest. From here I’m going toCadiz to open an exhibition in Andalu-sia.

A week after that I’m travelling tothe book fair in Santo Domingo andfrom there to Managua, the capital ofNicaragua, where I will take part in afestival that is called CentroaméricaCuenta.

Another term that I ended up adopt-ing is that of the “mapping” I do. And ifan atlas is what I’m doing, it is filledwith oceans because it is full of ab-sences.

The more writers I try to photograph,the more I have to photograph. It wouldbe impossible to take photos of every-body and there are authors I wouldhave liked to photograph but died be-fore I could do so.

Not to avoid your question – ifthere is an author I would like to photograph it is one whom I admire a lot, who lives in my own city and with whom I feel very in tune: it isMilan Kundera.

Is there anyone or anything you wouldnever photograph?I have been asked more than once whatwould be the limit and I think, for ex-ample, that it would be a writer that col-laborated with the military dictatorshipin Argentina or a writer who has been amouthpiece for whatever regime.

But in the end, I tell myself that in-stead of denying myself the photo Iwould take a portrait of them and letmy feelings on the topic show in thephoto.

14 CITY www.business-review.euBusiness Review | April 28 - May 4, 2014

FOUNDING EDITOR Bill AveryPUBLISHER Anca IonitaEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor JOURNALISTS Otilia Haraga - seniorjournalist, Simona Bazavan, Ovidiu Posirca, Oana Vasiliu COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe PHOTO EDITOR: Mihai ConstantineanuLAYOUT Beatric e Gheorghiu ART DIRECTOR Alexandru Oriean

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George MoiseSALES & EVENTS DIRECTOROana MolodoiSALES & EVENTSSales managers: Ana-Maria Nedelcu,Oana Albu, Raluca ComanescuMARKETINGAna-Maria Stanca, Ana Maria Andrei,Iulia MizganPRODUCTION Dan MitroiDISTRI BUTION Eugen Musat

PUBLISHERBloc Notes Media ADDRESSNo. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3Bucharest, Romania LANDLINEEditorial: 031.040.09.32Office: 031.040.09.31EMAILSeditorial@business-review.rosales@business-review.roevents@business-review.ro

ISSN No. 1453 - 729X

Novelist Enrique Vila-Matas, one ofthe most recognized contemporarySpanish writers

Barcelona-born Enrique de Heriz iscredited with coining the term

“fotinski”

Spaniard Ana Maria Matute becamea member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in 1997

Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who recently passed away, in a 2010 portrait taken at his home in Cartagena de Indias

What can and what cannot be shown ina photo?Often my photos unconsciously show things that writers are trying to hide. I’m not doing this on purpose; it’s just how things turn out.

In any case, it all comes out with good faith and, when it happens,what I do is share the photo with the writer, ask for permission to publish it without explaining why I’m asking for it or revealing

what I see. I simply look for his or hercomplicity, not only in taking thephotograph, but also with bringing itto light.

simona.fodor@business-review.ro

All photos: Daniel M

ordzinski

CredentialsBorn in Buenos Aires in 1960,Mordzinski started working in thenational film industry aged 18. In1982 he began his career as a pro-fessional photographer as a corre-spondent in Israel. He has beenliving in Paris since 1980 and iscurrently the correspondent ofSpanish newspaper El Pais.

The Argentine is an official photog-rapher of several literary events,including the Hay festival, Vivamer-ica in Madrid and FILBA in BuenosAires. He photographed Peruvianwriter Mario Vargas Lllosa, winnerof the 2010 Nobel Prize for Litera-

ture, at the awards ceremony. Mordzinski’s projects include the ex-hibition Tierra de palabras (1993) heldat both the Centre Pompidou andMaison de l’Ecrivain in Pairs, and Laciudad de las palabras (1996), a pho-tography book on Latin Americanwriters and their relationship withParis. The book was awarded at theNantes International PhotographyFestival.

He has traveled frequently alongsidewriter friends to develop commonprojects, such as Paralelo 42 Sur inPatagonia and El cine del Fin delMundo in Tierra de Fuego, with LuisSepulveda; Tras las huellas de losMoriscos in Morocco with JoséManuel Fajardo; Yunus, el banquerode los pobres in Bangladesh with Fer-

nando Carvallo and Ruta del mateamargo in Argentina with MempoGiardinelli.His works have been exhibited inmuseums across Latin Americaand at European festivals, and areto be found among some of themost prestigious collections ofcontemporary photography.

Mordzinski made news last yearwhen it was discovered that negatives he had built up over more than 30 years of work haddisappeared from his office at theFrench daily Le Monde after amove. The event caused indignationon social networks and Le Mondeand El Pais later issued a statement apologizing for the loss.

Ink and Light. A look inside Hispano-American Literature De tinta y luz. Una mirada alalma de las letras hispanoamericanasThe exhibition is open from April 16 to May 30.Visiting hours: Monday to Saturday, from 10.00 to 19.00. Instituto Cervantes, 38 Regina Elisabeta Blv.