Business Opportunities ROMANIA - NORWAY
 
Romania - general data
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The Romanian State
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Nation: Romania
Capital city: Bucharest
Geographic position: in the south-east of Central Europe. Neighbours: Ukraine (N), the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the Black Sea (E), Bulgaria (S), Serbia (SW), and Hungary (W).
Population: ca. 21,700,000. Outside the country's borders there are large Romanian communities.
Official language: Romanian (a neo-Latin language of the Romance languages family)
Ethnic structure: Romanians – 89.5%; Hungarians (including Szecklers) – 6.5%; other ethnic groups – 4%
Religion: Eastern Orthodox - 86.7%; Roman-Catholic - 4.7%; Protestant - 3.2%, etc.
Administrative organization: 41 counties, plus Bucharest, the capital city (population ca. 2,200,000). There are 263 cities and towns, of which 80 municipalities, and 2 685 communes with over 13 285 villages.
Climate: temperate-continental, four seasons
Features: mountains (31% of area), hills and plateaus (33%), plains (36%), Danube Delta
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Romania is a sovereign and independent, unitary and indivisible nation state;
Form of government: republic;
Romania is a democratic and social state ruled by the law;
The state is organized according to the principle of separation and balance of the powers – the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary – in the framework of constitutional democracy, guaranteed by political pluralism.
The President of Romania represents the Romanian state and guarantees the national independence, unity and territorial integrity of the country (5-year term). Since December 2004 Traian Băsescu has been President of Romania (re-elected on Dec. 6, 2009 for a new term of office).
The Legislative: The Parliament of Romania (4-year term) has two houses: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
The Executive: The Government of Romania, headed by the Prime Minister, entrusted by the President of Romania with forming the Cabinet and with the Governance Program endorsed by Parliament by a vote of confidence.
The Judiciary: independence guaranteed by the Superior Council of the Magistracy; judges are irremovable.
Romania is a member of the UN (1955), of NATO (2004) and of the European Union (2007).
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The national symbols
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The Flag of Romania
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The National Coat of Arms
State heraldic symbols existed as far back as the dawn of the Middle Ages, gradually evolving towards a representative, synthetic coat of arms.
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The flag of Romania is a tricolor: red, yellow and blue.
The flag of Romania has the colors placed vertically as follows: blue (hoist), yellow (in the middle) and red (fly). The blue is cobalt, the yellow – chrome, and the red – vermillion.
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Geography of Romania
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Romania is located in the geographic centre of Europe. It neighbours to the North on Ukraine, to the East on the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the Black Sea, to the South on Bulgaria, to the South-West on Serbia, and to the West on Hungary.
It stretches over 238,391 sq km, which ranks it 12th in Europe.
The administrative organization of Romania features 41 counties, and Bucharest, thecapital city. In the counties, the basic administrative units are the towns and communes (made of several villages). There are 263 cities and towns, of which 80 municipalities, and 2 685 communes with over 13 285 villages.
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Norway in Romania
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Bilateral trade ties
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Norway and Romania have a long history of diplomatic relations. They were established as early as 1917, only interrupted by the Second World War and in the years 1988-1990. Norway was one of the first countries to recognize the new regime in Romania after the revolution, and the Norwegian embassy in Bucharest was reopened in the summer of 1990.
Norwegian – Romanian relations are open and friendly, characterized by frequent contacts and a broad exchange of visits. In 1999 King Harald V was the first Norwegian monarch to visit Romania. After the revolution Norway has significantly assisted Romania both in economic and humanitarian terms. This has lead to a widespread cooperation at state, governmental and parliamentary level, as well as close contacts between organizations, business and people in general.
Although Norway and Romania are at the opposite ends of Europe, today's era of integration and co-operation is bringing the two countries closer together. Following Romania's membership processes in NATO and the EU, the bilateral dialogue has intensified even further over the last years. Norway was the first country to ratify Romania's accession agreement to NATO by parliamentary approval in the spring of 2003, and the Norwegian government developed a special framework which supported the country on its way to EU membership in 2007. Today, Norway is Romanias biggest bilateralt donor and contributes significantly to promote social and economic development trough the EEA financial mechanism.
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There is a growing interest from Norwegian companies to trade and invest in Romania and business relations between Norway and Romania are very good. The trade figures show increased trade between Romania and Norway since 2007. A peak was reached in 2009, when the total value of trade between the two countries constituted EUR 582 M. However, the volume of trade decreased to EUR 515 M in 2010.
In 2012, Norway imported goods from Romania with the total value of EUR 289 M. This is a slight decrease from previous years. Goods were exported from Norway to Romania with a total value of EUR 188 M, and the volume of exports has been stable the past few years.
About 60 Norwegian companies are registered in Romania. The shipping and maritime industry is an important sector for Norwegian investments and trade. In addition, there is a growing interest in sectors like energy, environment and IT.
ORKLA is today the biggest Norwegian investor in Romania. Through its Romanian subsidiary company Orkla Foods Romania SRL, the company has bought a number of food factories in the recent years. The total value of Norwegian investments in Romania was EUR 209 M in 2011.
The trade exchange between Romania and Norway is unfolding mainly in the framework provided by the European Union. As a founding member of EFTA, and based on the European Economic Area (EEA) cooperation and treaty, Norway has participated in the internal market since 1994. On entering the EU the candidate countries also become members of the EEA. The EEA forms the basis for economic relations between the new EU member countries and Norway. In practical terms this means that the four freedoms apply to Romania and Norway.
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Norwegian investment in Romania
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Business in Romania
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Norwegian investment in Romania keep the following rough structure:
►Industry: 58%;
►Agriculture: 14%;
►Wholesale trade: 11%;
►Professional services: 9%;
►Retail: 3.5%;
►Tourism: 2.3%;
►Transportation: 1.4%.
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In December 2012, Romanian Ministry of Finance accepted, issued and published a reciprocity agreement that allows Norwegian companies to obtain refund of Romanian VAT.
Enterprises established in Norway are entitled to claim a refund of VAT paid by them in Romania, under the same limits and conditions applied to Romanian enterprises.
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The Romanian Market
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- Key facts:
• Largest market in South Eastern Europe and the 7th largest in the EU with a 19,5 mill. population
• NATO and EU membership
• Currency: 1 EUR is 4,38 RON (Romanian leu) as per January 15 2013
• Affiliation to international organizations: United Nations, Council of Europe, World Trade Organization, OSCE; free trade agreements with EU, EFTA etc.
• Legal framework harmonized with the one in the EU
• Romania entered into two stand-by agreements with the IMF (covering the periods 2009-2011 and 2011-2013) as measures to fight the financial crisis
• Third largest inward FDI receiver in Central and Eastern Europe with 30 bln EUR attracted over the last 6 years only; by sector, most FDI s are in manufacturing industry, trade, financial services and IT&C
• Resourceful country (competitive and skilled labour force, rich natural resources: waters, oil and gas, fertile agricultural land)
Macroeconomic data
• Rapid GDP rate growth between 2001 and 2008 (one of the biggest in the EU (7,3%) in 2008), followed by a severe adjustment in 2009 and 2010; in 2012 the GDP rate growth was 1,4 % and the forecast for 2013 is 2,5%
• Inflation rate: 3,1 % in 2012 and the forecast for 2013 is 4,1 %
• Public debt was 34,7 % of GDP in 2012, the 4th lowest public debt in the EU
• The budgetary deficit for 2012 was 3,1 % of GDP, i.e. under the threshold of the EU (4,4%); for 2013 it will stay within the same margins, as per the IMF agreement
Low cost for doing business
• The corporate income tax is 16%, the second lowest in the EU; Micro-companies may choose to pay a 3% income tax on income, instead of profit tax
• Salary tax exemption may be applied for employees working on software creation if certain conditions are fulfilled
• Favourable office rent and low cost of utilities
• Out of 185 countries looked at by the World Bank from the perspective of the ease of doing business, Romania is ranked 72.
Human Resources
• Highly qualified multilingual labour force: Romania has 10 major university centers with over 200 000 graduates/ yr; foreign investments have concentrated in areas with technical faculties and significant availability of engineers and IT specialists.
• Lower costs with the labour forces than in most EU countries
• Unemployment rate was 7,3 in 2012, below the EU average (11,8%) and is estimated to stay in the same margins in 2013
• Employment rate of people between 20-64 is 62,3 % (as per June 2012); the EU average is 68 %
• The gross average monthly salary was 471 EUR in 2011
Investment Incentives
• State aid schemes for sustainable development
• Access to EU structural funds
• Right to fully repatriate the capital and profits etc.
Prioritized sectors
• Energy
• Transportation
• Agriculture
• IT&C
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The most important Norwegian investors in Romania
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Some of the most important Norwegian investors in Romania are: STX Europe (Korean company, headquartered in Oslo, who bought in 2009, the Norwegian group Aker Yards). The main acivitate is shipbuilding. STXEurope holds a majority stake in shipyards from Tulcea and Braila. Orkla Foods International (food - 5 plants), ICE ICEPRONAV (engineering design and construction of vessels), Moxy Trucks (truck chassis), ENSY (electromechanical). Also mentioned are major companies operating in Romania such as Alstom (on aluminum), Kongsberg (security devices), Jacobsen Electro (electricity sector), DFDS (land transport), Nord Pool and ENSI ( in the energy sector), Elkem (ferroalloys), Yara (fertilizers) and IT company VISMA.
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Source:
http://www.norvegia.ro/News_and_events/business/
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+4 021 266 56 77
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