Cosmin Galu is the managing partner of Ascent Group in Serbia

Cosmin Galu is the managing partner of Ascent Group in Serbia.

Cosmin graduated the Law Faculty within Vasile Goldis University in Arad. His studies also include numerous scholarships and specializations, such as „Political Management” with the „National Democratic Institute” in Washington, USA, „Crisis Management” through the Konrad Adenauer Foundation – Germany, „Conflict Management” with the IRI – International Republican Institute, in the USA.

Since 2002, Cosmin is also a trainer of the National Democratic Institute from USA, for whom he held trainings in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

Ascent Group Romania has a new financial manager. Liviu Tulcan graduated the Faculty of Mechanics “Traian Vuia” Timişoara and the Faculty of Engineering and Economy within the University Aurel Vlaicu from Arad, with a degree in Finance and Banking.

He’s professional experience includes 10 years of activity in engineering within a Research and Projecting Institute and 10 years of experience in finance and accounting, managing the financial and accounting activity in Romania of some prestigious multinational companies.

The financial and accounting experience of Liviu includes 4 years in accounting management within Contor Zenner, and 6 years of experience in coordination of financial and accounting departments and in controlling for prestigious companies, such as Systronics, Alcoa Romania or Zumtobel Lighting.

Nicolae Enache is the new Client Relationship Manager of OCRA Romania. Nicolae graduated the Faculty of Marketing within the Artifex University Bucharest, respectively a Master program in Communication and Public Relationship within the National School for Political and Administrative Sciences “David Ogilvy” Bucureşti, Faculty of Communication and Public Relationship. Over the last years, Nicolae also graduated various courses on management and quality assurance, both in Romania and abroad.

His professional experience includes 7 years of activity in various fields of activity such as financial, consulting and project management, in a National Health Insurance Company and in prestigious companies such Louis Berger, Unicredit şi Banc Post. Nicolae has a wide experience in organizing and implementing projects and programs, locally and internationally.

Ascent Group continues its expansion plans, by opening a new office in Serbia, in Belgrade. The launching of Ascent Group’s office in Serbia was realized through the association of Ascent Group and Lobby Consult Serbia, association having as result the establishing of Ascent Group Serbia.

The office of Ascent Group in Belgrade will offer customers all types of services the group Ascent is offering, but at the same time aims to become a catalyst to enhance business relations between Serbia and other countries in the region. Last but not least, the Serbia office aims to provide support to all foreign investors who intend to start a business in Serbia.

When this autumn began I wrote an article about “the news of the autumn”. And I was concluding that article saying that certainly it will not be a monotonous autumn, respectively that we will have many news, many challenges and most likely many opportunities well-matched to autumn’s colours.

Here we are, after just two months and this autumn has proven to be more different on economical level than previous ones. Moreover the crisis we have begun to enter has proven to be extreme and on global level, deeply shaking the entire international financial system and keeping to shake the global economy. Unfortunately this is not only an autumn crisis but a deeper one and with long-lasting effects.

Parafiscal taxes in Romania were finally reduced. The last “census”, prepared by the World Bank regarding parafiscalty, put Romania on first place in Europe, with a total of 385 parafiscal laws and 278 parafiscal taxes. The number has reduced to 115 at present, after the exclusion from this segment of charges related to both the public domain, as well as the private. The charges that were reduces include incomes from rents, specifications for tenders, but also charges for PhD’s within public and private universities.

Nevertheless, Romania is still among the countries with an excessive parafiscality, the government announcing other measures for the reduction of these fees.

The summer just passed by, and we all prepare to enter in the autumn.

Autumn always inspires me a few words: plenty, wisdom, fulfillment… Still autumn means the beginning of the school, electoral campaigns, but also the main trends in the economy, those who we will give guidance for the upcoming year.

Therefore, let’s go to review what happened in the end of this summer, but also the main trends revealed by the beginning of the autumn.

Good news comes from the Ministry of Economy, who announce a record of the transitional period, namely: “Romania’s economy grew by 8.6% in the first half of 2008, while the advance of the gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year was almost 9%”.

Starting with September 2008 Reliana Groza became the coordinator of the legal department of Ascent Group in Arad.

Reliana graduated the Law Faculty within the Western University of Timisoara and a Maser program in Civil Law and Civil Procedure within the Law Faculty of “Vasile Goldiş” University from Arad.

Reliana’s professional experience includes 5 years in legal advising, mainly as legal consultant and arbitral assistant, respectively as coordinator of the legal department of the Commerce Chamber form Arad. Reliana’s experience mainly includes information and documentary activities for legal entities, legal consulting for business start-up’s, respectively commercial arbitration for companies having commercial litigations.

In August the Ministry of Labour has launched for public debate the draft of the Government decision which provides the increase of the minimum guaranteed gross wage to 8% from the 1st of October 2008 and 11% from the 1st of January 2009. According to the draft of the resolution, the minimum gross wage guaranteed will be 540 lei per month, between the 1st of October – 31st of December 2008, for a full time working schedule of 170 hours per month, in average, representing a value of 3.176 lei/hour.

Starting with August 2008 the project team of Ascent Group has a new coordinator, Elena Manera.

Elena graduated the National School of Political and Administrative Sciences “David Ogilvy” – The Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, with a degree in Human Resources Management. She is also an Italian language authorized translator by the Ministry of Justice.

Direct foreign investments in Romania increased in the first month of 2008 with 76.4% in comparison to January 2007, totalizing 695 million euros, according to the information published by the Central Bank.

The participations at the capital and the reinvested profit represented 45.2% from the direct foreign investments, while the intra-group loans represented 54.8%.

Direct foreign investments in Romania diminished in 2007 with 22.3%, comprising a total of 7069 thousand million euros, respectively these ones covered the deficit of the balance of payment in proportion of 41.9%.

Dacă sunteţi preocupaţi serios de cariera dumneavoastră atunci este momentul să faceţi cunoştinţă cu IntercollegIBS. Acum şi în România!

IntercollegeIBS oferă programe academice şi de pregătire profesională, pentru sectorul financiar – bancar şi cel al afacerilor. Absolvirea acestor programe certificate conferă posibilitatea îmbunătăţirii cunoştinţelor, cu strictă aplicabilitate practică. Certificările internaţionale obţinute în urma absolvirii programelor oferite de IntercollegeIBS sunt de cel mai înalt nivel şi se adresează celor care doresc să devină profesionişti de succes.

If you are serious about your career it’s time to meet IntercollegeIBS! Now also in Romania!

IntercollegeIBS offers both academic programs and professional training for the business and financial services sectors. The graduation of these programs provides the opportunity to enhance knowledge and expertise at the postgraduate level. There are first class qualifications for people intending to become successful professionals.

Analysis published in Consulting Review magazine

The collective labour contract represents an agreement concluded in a written form on one hand between the employer and on the other by the employees, through their assigned representatives or where there is the case, by unions. In this agreement there are established clauses concerning working conditions, remuneration, as well as other rights and obligations resulted from labour relations. All companies that have at least 21 employees are obliged by Labour Code (Law 53/2003, republished) to conclude collective labour agreements.

Lia Bejenaru, became partner of Ascent Business Consulting, the company held by Ascent Group in the Republic of Moldova.

Lia is currently the manager of Ascent Group’s office in Chisinau, and her addition into the ownership structure of the group represents the recognition of the activity she had from the launching of the group operations in the Republic of Moldova.

Lia’s education includes the Faculty of Finances, Money and Banking within the Academy of Economic Studies in Moldova, the European Institute of Political Studies within the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France and the School for Political Leaders within the Association for Participative Democracy.

Bulgarian average household income rose by a nominal 23.9% in December year-upon-year, as by the information published by the country’s National Statistics Institute (NSI).

The average household income stood at BGN 844.75 (431.78 Euro) in December, At the same time, expenditures sped up to an average BGN 769.26 (393.19 Euro).

Foodstuffs remain the highest expenditure of Bulgarian households, accounting for 39.1% of all spending. The second-largest expenditure are utility fees, which amount to 11.8% of all spending.

Individual income in Bulgaria stood at BGN 338.53 (173.03 Euro) in December 2007.

2007 represented a fast grow year for Ascent Group, fact that is also confirmed by the financial results. At the end of the year, Ascent Group reports a 108% grow of the turnover compared to 2006, overcoming the initial forecast of the management of the group. At the beginning of the year, the management of Ascent Group estimated a turnover grow by 45% for 2007.

Another important grow was registered in 2007 in terms of number of clients. The portfolio grew by 34% compared to 2006.

2007 has also marked the conclusion by Ascent Group of some strategic partnership. Based on these partnerships the consulting group will represent in Romania the companies OCRA, Jordan Sheppard and Identity Compass.

Adela Cristea, managing partner of Ascent Group and Lia Bejenaru, manager of Ascent Group’s office in Chisinau participated a few days ago to a conference organized by Confindustria Catania.

The topic of the conference was: “Business Opportunities: Romania and the Republic of Moldova” being organized by Confidustria Catania in cooperation with Assoconsult Sicilia, Gruppo Strazzeri, Casa Italia Consulenza and Ascent Group.

The conference was attended by Sicilian business people interested by business opportunities in the 2 countries. Adela Cristea and Lia Bejenaru presented the legal and fiscal frame of Romania and Moldova as well as concrete business opportunities from different fields of activity.

Elena Ionescu was recently appointed as manager of Jordan Sheppard Romania. Jordan Sheppard Romania was established in November 2007 as a result of an association between the prestigious multinational company Jordan Sheppard Executive Search and the consulting group Ascent. The company offers high quality services in executive search and head-hunting to the companies interested in the improvement of the recruitment process for top and middle management positions.

2008 brought us many changes regarding both the level of some taxes and social contributions, and also the level of the minimum salary, on national economy level and also relate to some professional categories…

Considering these changes, the minimum salary on economy level in Romania has increased starting with January 2008 to 500 Lei, compared with 390 Lei in 2007. Based on the legislation changes brought by the Government Decision no. 1,507 issued on 12th of December 2007, the minimum gross salary on economy level will also increase again with July 1st 2008 to 540 Lei, in case that the main indicators on macroeconomic level, based on whom the budget is built, will be maintained (increase of the GDP, maintaining of the inflations within the estimated values, maintenance of the economic grow and work productivity).

Starting with January 2008 Bulgaria has a new 10% flat tax rate for individuals, replacing the 10%-24% tax rates in 2007.

The Bulgarian 10% corporate tax rate for 2008 remains the same as in 2007 and is positioning Bulgaria together with Cyprus among the lowest taxations within the European Union.

The VAT rate in Bulgaria for 2008 will remain 20%, the same as in 2007.

Ascent Group started recently a cooperation with the prestigious magazine Tonica (www.tonica.ro). Starting with the next editions of the magazine the HR department consultants of Ascent Group will publish opinions on topics related to career, presentation and communication skills, time management, work relationship management, employee motivation and many others.

The cooperation with Tonica magazine is a confirmation of the quality of Ascent Group consultant’s opinions and we hope that our articles will be appreciated by the magazine’s readers.

One more year just passed by, our first year as citizens of the European Union, and as in any moment of evaluation we look back and try to understand what brought us the year that just passed, but specially we look into the future and try to understand what changes the next year will bring us.

2007 was our first European year, a year with many changes but also with many confusions. Many reforms were started, but unfortunately many others were slowed down.

Ascent Group became partner of Consulting Review magazine, publication dedicated to answer the needs of information, documentation and professional improvement in business felt by all the investors and managers in Romanian.

Starting with December, Ascent Group consultants will answer to the questions addressed by the readers of the magazine; respectively they will offer solutions on accounting, tax, legal and labor issues.

The selection of Ascent Group as partner of the Consulting Review magazine is an additional proves for the quality of the service our group tries to provide for its clients.

Continuous personnel formation is a deeper and deeper need felt by any company our days. It represents not only an investment in people, but also a very useful tool to become more efficient, to solve easier the multitude of tasks we have to face every day, and not last, an important motivation factor for our employees.

Ascent Group is your partner in the process of personal and professional development of your employees, because, first of all, the value of a company is given by the value of its people.

Ascent Group brings a modern vision to the learning process, by emphasizing the benefits of “learning by doing” through exercises, role-plays and behavioral modeling. Our training programs have an interactive approach, are personalized and addressed to each client’s unique demands, to their visions and organizational objectives.

Last week, the 2nd edition of Ascent Group Business Forum took place in Chisinau. Important moment for us. Important moment for many of the companies who attended trying to identify business partners.

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the event was also treated very seriously by the officials of the Republic of Moldova.

I saw a very professional Minister of Economy and Commerce, Igor Dodon, who had the patience to explain to investors what are the changes in the legislation and how those will influence the economic environment of the Republic of Moldova starting next year, I saw a Vice-President of the Parliament, Iurie Rosca, who is struggling for many years to attract foreign investors into the country and a very young Mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, trying to offer guaranties to the foreign investors.