CEC Bank and Eximbank want to “unfroze” the loans

The state has decided to increase the capital of the CEC Bank with 900 million lei and Eximbank and the Guarantee Loans for SMEs want to fully ensure the loans for small business offered by commercial banks in order to relaunch the process of financing for SMEs .

The trend to generate new products for small and medium enterprises is a reason of joy for companies. These loans are specially offered to finance current business, not for major investments in such cases banks preferring to maintain a strict control.

These loans are coming to meet the needs of small business owners. For this reason the loans offered without any material guarantee provides, first of all, the advantage of obtaining the necessary amounts of a good management of current payments. Most entrepreneurs who are facing difficulties in this regard have available funds for short term expenses. The cost to access such a product bank is similar with the one of a normal credit.

Already for many years now I handle negotiations with trade unions. Especially when related to renegotiations of collective labor agreements, but in many cases throughout the year. I had the opportunity to meet many representatives of trade unions and to negotiate with them. And I do not want to hide the fact that very often I felt frustration, because of the total unconstructive attitude of union’s representatives, because the total lack of understanding of economic realities by some of these, but mostly because of a completely wrong understanding of the role that they should play as a Union…

The employer “must” give us! The employer “must” understand us! The employer was mostly for the trade unions the “black man” who should be charged for all our failures, who must solve all our problems, whether he has or not the capacity to do so.

The evaluation for oil barrel price made by Goldman Sachs analysts is very optimistic – the oil price could decrease till 30 dollars in the first quarter of the next year.

The orders decrease as a result of the global crisis and the recession from some very industrialized states are the main reasons of this evaluation.

Also, it’s possible that OPEC will reduce at the beginning of the next year the production with a million barrels/day over the expected decrease of this month.

Now, the oil is quoted at 46,28 dollars per barrel in New York and 46,41 dollars per barrel in London. The values are with approximately 100 dollars less than the record quotation from July, 147,27 dollars per barrel.

Starting 15th of December 2008 the value added tax rate decrease from 19% at 5% for dwellings transactions with a maximum value of 100 000 Euro.

The measures intends to unblock the real estate market and has a double target: to prevent spreading the effects of economic crisis and as social protection measure.

The new 5 % of VAT fated to relaunch the construction and real estate sector but is a difficult process without a sustained lending process, a first good step might be the restart of financing process by banks.

The decrease of VAT, on long term will actuate and diversify the offers for the low sector of real estate where now the request is high for 100 000 – 120 000 Euro dwellings.

On the 10th of December 2008 Romanian Government has adopted Decision no. 1682, that amends and supplements the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 148/2005 of family support to raise the child.

This decision brings a series of news for mothers or future mothers whom revenues exceed the amount of the fixed monthly allowance of 600 lei.

In this sense the rules for implementing the above Ordinance provides that from January 2009 the child allowance is granted in the amount of 600 lei, or optionally, the rate of 85% of average professional income achieved during last 12 months of last year before child’s birth or where appropriate, the date on which the child was given for adoption, or the child was adopted or child has taken in placement or in placement in a matter of urgency, as well as the date on which the person was appointed guardian, according to law.

Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MMDD) launches the second selection session for projects in the field of nature protection, to provide non refundable financial assistance in the Sectoral Operational Program „Environment”, namely Priority Axis 4 – „Implementation of Appropriate Management Systems for Protection of the Nature”.

The projects should be developed in line with the objectives and strategy for financing related priority axis 4 – „Implementation of Appropriate Management Systems for Protection of Nature” of the POS Environment.

The requests for funding (the application form) and the Applicant’s Guide is available on the website of MMDD (www.mmediu.ro). The Applicant Guide contains details about the conditions of access the funding system and the instructions for completion and submission of funding requests.

According to a bill that is to be introduced within the Romanian Parliament, starting with next year the employees might receive vouchers for holiday from the employer. The maximum annual value that might be granted will represent the equivalent of six minimum gross wages per economy.

In accordance with the agreement between the Government, the syndicates and the associations of employers, beginning with the 1st of January 2009, the minimum gross wage granted will be 600 RON, therefore the employer might receive at the most 3600 RON per year for the holidays.

In this way, the law allows to the employer to offer a supplementary benefit to the employees, under the form of a payment for the holiday, out of which the state will return the taxes. The condition for the employer to benefit of this facility is that the company registers profit.

Starting with the 1st of December 2008, three types of contribution owed by the employers to the state budget have been diminished as follows:

• According to article 27 from Law 76/2002, with further alterations and completions, the contribution for the budget of unemployment insurances owed by the employer will diminish from 1% to 0.5%.
• According to article 258 to Law 95/2006, with further alterations and completions, the contribution for health insurances owed by the employer will diminish from 5.5% to 5.2%.
• According to Law 387 from 2007 concerning the budget of state social insurances, the contribution of social insurances owed by the employer will diminish from 19.5% to 18%.

In November 2008 Ascent Group signed in Padova a strategic agreement with Eurointerim Spa. Based on this agreement Ascent Group will represent Eurointerim in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Republic of Moldova for the whole typology of services offered by Ascent Group. The same agreement stipulates that Ascent Group recognizes Eurointerim as its exclusive partner for personnel leasing services in all the countries in the region.

Big corporates are often seen as distant and less caring than small family-businesses and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). An employee may never even meet the Managing Director of the company let alone to be directly motivated by him. The challenge for a bigger organisation then seems to be in communicating the company vision – “raison d’être”, and values from the top-management to all levels of employees, create trust, inspire and motivate all employees to work for the common goal.

A recent study exploring employee perceptions of organisational trustworthiness across Europe¹ indicates that organisations, big or small, are not doing this job very well…Employee trust in organisations seems to be alarmingly low when only 42% of employees believe that their organisation can be trusted, as the study shows. The study was conducted by training and coaching company Krauthammer on behalf of a specialist team representing seven European universities².

After long delays, on the 10 th of November 2008 was finally published the Law 260/2008 regarding the compulsory insurance of real estate against earthquakes, land slips or floods.

This Law will be aplied within 120 days of publishing it in Official Gazette of Romania, respectively at the 10th of March 2009.

The Law refers not only to obligativity of houses’ insurance by natural persons but it stipulates provisions also for houses which are owned by legal entities.

So, any legal entity, who ownes houses and those are registered at Fiscal Authorities, is obliged to close an insurance contract against earthquakes, land slips or floods. In case of houses which are state ownership or territorial-admministrative ownership this obligativity is incumbent on appointed person or authorities to manage them, under the Law terms. If a house is the object of a financial leasing contract, the conclusion of the insurance contract will be the tenant’s obligation.

The magazine Consulting Review recently launched the new version of the website. Starting with November 2008 you can read most of the articles published in the magazine also on the website, at: www.consultingreview.ro.

Consulting Review was launched at the end of 2007 and in one year has managed to become a referral on the business publication’s market in Romania through the quality of the articles, analysis and opinions published by a wide number of specialists in the consulting fields that are covered by the magazine.

Starting with January 2009 the magazine will be distributed exclusively based on subscription. Details about the way you can subscribe can be found at http://www.consultingreview.ro/abonare.html. Ascent Group invites you to subscribe to Consulting Review in order to benefit in 2009 as well by the advices of the magazine’s consultants.

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.

If I could ask anybody on Earth, no matter religion or nationality, I think few people could give me a definition of what means to be a good colleague at work.

In fact, there is not a standard definition to explain what means to be a good colleague at work, but we could guide ourselves to some unwritten rules. This comes from the inside of each person and depends on its character, on the honour and respect we generally grant to human beings.

Anyway, in my opinion, attitude towards our colleagues is connected with our communication skills and the importance we grant to interpersonal relationships.

We should have a positive attitude at work, should try to avoid criticism for our colleagues or in case we have something to object we should treat the situation with diplomacy and decency.

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.

One of most important obligations of the employer towards its employees is to pay them. Fulfilling the duties assumed, means for most employers one of the biggest expenses related to their activity. Salaries and their related costs (contributions to health, unemployment, pensions, etc.) usually add up to approximately 60% of total operating costs of a large-scale enterprise.

Every recruitment process, whether handled internally or through a recruitment agency, starts with a good definition of the ideal candidate profile. If we are talking about a middle or top management position, inevitably the ideal profile will contain the following expressions: “leadership abilities”, “vision” and “business understanding”, “thinking out-of-the-box”, “inspiring people”, “reflects the values and the culture of the company”, etc.

The expectations that the new manager has to fulfill are also clearly stated: team development, process optimization, meeting sales targets or other business objectives.

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.

In the Official Gazette 328 /25th of April 2008 was published the Govern Emergency Ordinance no 44/2008 regarding the organisation of economic activities for natural persons, individual and family enterprises which abrogates specifically the Law 300/2004, the enforcement guidelines of applications of Law 300/2004 and also any other contrary legal provisions.

New regulation simplifies the procedure of registering such entities in the Registrar of Commerce as well as the procedure of operating changes in the statutory documents of authorized natural persons, individual and family enterprises.

Thus, the procedure of issuing the working authorizations by the Municipalities was canceled, the Registrar of Commerce of every Court being the only body competent to issue registration certificates, respectively the certificates of registering mentions for such legal entities.

In the new legal provision new terms are included and defined as following:

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, beginning with 2009 the Fiscal Code will suffer several changes:

VAT

The persons that are not registered for VAT purpose (especially the natural persons) and who buy new intra community means of transport will not be obliged to pay VAT in Romania for these acquisitions before the enrolling of the new means of transport, those enrolling in Romania not being possible without this proof.

Until now, VAT was paid till the 25th of the month following the intra community acquisition and the proof of the payment was not requested at the enrolling.

Excices

The legal entities that commercialize, in retail, system energetic power products for which excises should be paid, for example all types of fuels, are obliged to be registered at the Territorial Fiscal Authority.

Due to some changes in the legislation, the minimum gross salary was increased on national level to 540 lei, starting with the 1st of October 2008, accordingly to legal provision no. 1051/10.09.2008. The change will be valid until the 31st of December 2008. Starting with 1st January 2009 the minimum gross salary will increase from 540 Lei to 600 Lei per month.

The amount of 540 Lei is established for 170 hours per week representing 3, 16 lei/hour. In case employees’ salaries are registered below the Romanian minimum gross salary, this is considered to be illegal and is penalized with fees between 1000 – 2000 lei.

In Romania, the minimum gross salary for the period between October and December 2008 will be 540 Lei for unqualified workers, 648 Lei for qualified workers and 1080 Lei for employees who graduated college.

Starting this Monday the President of Romania, Mr. Traian Basescu, promulgated the Law regarding updates of the first paragraph of article 134 from Law no 53/2003 – Labour Code.

Employees will benefit of 3 additional days of leave (excepting those already stipulated). These days will be: first and second day after the Whitsun (the Whitsun is celebrated on Sunday, 50 days after Easter) and the 15th of August, when is celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

Few of us truly understand what the importance of working in a team is. How can we be efficient working in a team and why working together? One of the apparently insignificant aspects would be the need to have a strong motivation from each team member in order to wish and determine to involve itself and to work within a team.

A strong motivation for some people would be either a higher wage or a raise. Each of us has different motivations but for co-working in a team there must be a final purpose, a common gain, even though individual motivations are different.