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Romanian Business News April 2008
( 10 / April / 2008 )
Top 5 most profitable businesses in Bucharest: consultancy, car sales, pharmaceuticals and construction
Top 5 most profitable businesses in Bucharest are those engaged in consultancy and management, car sales, pharmaceuticals and constructions, data of the Bucharest Finance Public General Direction reveals. The biggest tax on profits totaled some 3 million euro and was paid in 2007 by a consultancy firm while the biggest income tax amounted to 300,000 euro, paid by a lawyer.
According to the data of the Public Finance General Direction remitted to HotNews.ro, most profitable companies for 2006 were those in constructions and real estate developments. However, in 2007 highest profits were obtained by lawyers.
According to official statistics, companies in the top can be found in Districts 1, 5 and 6 in Bucharest. The data refer only to small and medium sized companies with profits of over 70 million Romanian Ron.
Romania, largest new car market in CEE
The number of new cars sold in Romania hiked by 23.1% in the first nine months of the year, to 228,877 units. This makes Romania the largest auto market in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a study by Jato Dynamics.
Poland ranks second with 217,412 cars sold at the nine month marker, up 24% on the similar period in 2006. In Hungary, 128,958 new cars were sold, down 5.9%.
Dacia Logan sold best: 76,924 units, followed by Skoda Fabia with 58,920 units sold.
Auto market accelerates towards 400,000 vehicles
New car sales could rise this year high above the initial expectations of the Association of Automobile Importers and Producers (APIA) and, as such, might attain the threshold of 400,000 vehicles after, in 2007, the Romanian market exceeded the number of 300,000 new car sales, Capital weekly reads on Friday.
According to the publication, the new vehicle sales increase will range in 2008 between 20 percent and 27 percent, whereas APIA vice-president Brent Valmar had declared at this year-start that 'at APIA level an increase of 5 percent is foreseeable and the market might even stagnate or record a decline'.
Given the answers of 18 importers, a study conducted by Vardie Consult, the authors also show that there is an under-dimensioning of the auto service network and because of that people must wait up to a few weeks or even months when they need to repair their car.
Some importers (25 percent) appreciated that the main cause is the 'explosion of the auto market, which left behind service capacities', another fourth placed in the first spot the 'lack of qualified personnel' but the highest number of respondents - 35 percent - blamed the 'labor force migration'.
On the other hand, 15.4 percent considers that, due to the pollution tax, the new automobile market is to be reduced by 20 percent, the others saying that the influence will be minimal.
For this year, according to importers, a surge of 50 percent - 60 percent is expected in SUVs sales and even 60 percent - 70 percent in monovolume cars.
As for the evolution of the auto market, a conservative scenario shows an overall jump of 30 percent in the sales of imported cars, up to 266,000 units and an advance by 2.7 percent, up to 113,874, of local vehicle sales.
The other scenario, the optimistic one, estimates a surge by 39 percent in the number of imported cars and 5 percent for the locally made ones.
Romania accepted 4,500 foreign workers in 2007
Romanian Immigration Office granted this year a total number of 4,500 work permits to foreign citizens. According to immigration authorities, people come to work in Romania chiefly from Turkey, Moldova, and China, and usually take jobs in the construction industry. Foreign workers typically find employment in the more developed areas of the country, such as Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, and Timisoara.
Minister of Justice Tudor Chiuariu recently declared that the Government had plans to make it easier for Romanian employers to hire workers from abroad. His announcement followed frequent complains by investors about the stuffed bureaucracy they have to deal with when employing foreigners.