Archive for the ‘Bucharest’ Category

One of my clients is a Romanian-born Swedish guy who is in the business of software development. We helped him set up a Romanian branch of his Swedish company. Of course, he was astonished of how long and complicated the procedure is (probably because he doesn’t know how it used to be couple of years ago ). He told me that in Sweden one can set up a company simply by filling in some forms over the Internet. He also shown me the registration certificate of his company. What struck me was that it was mentioned not only the date of incorporation, but also the hour – 21:23.

I then realised how much freedom such a system gives you. You have an entreprenorial idea – you can go for it right away, no matter if it is night or day, Monday or Saturday. You do not have to spend much energy and time (a week if you are a Romanian) or money (for a lawyer) to pass the formalities. You can concentrate on creating value through your enterprise.

The Romanian authorities announced three years ago that they will pass a law which will allow the online creation of companies. Couple of month ago they announced that one company managed to be set up via online. This should not be a surprise as the authorities currently are unable even to interconnect the databases of different ministries. This is why the same company taxes have to be declared at 4-5 state institutions.

So my guess is that it will take at least 5 years until the norm will be to use modern means to set up a company in Romania. Until then, I strongly advise you to save time, energy and money by using the knowledge of someone familiar with the system (as opposed to trying to figure out by yourself all the small but important details which can prolong the process for couple of months – no joking!).

Cristian Bizau

Bucharest Angel

I’ve heard a number of crazy stories involving the trains in Romania, but only recently after five months of train travel between Bucharest and Sibiu did I have one myself. I don’t typically meet people on the train; it is usually a pretty quiet affair with everyone minding their own business, and my last trip to Bucharest was equally uneventful, just one lady and myself in the cabin. We each read, ate our lunches at the same time (as to not annoy each other with crunching while the other read), and never spoke a word until we disembarked, even then only politely smiling and saying the customary “La Revedere”.

But the ride back was distinctly different.  To our mutual surprise, the same lady and I would be sharing a cabin again, alone, until the door slammed open and a very drunk, very disgruntled man in his fifties burst in a sidled up next to me, ignoring the three other open seats at the other end of the cabin. For the next three hours (until Brasov) we got to hear the mad yelling drunken man tell us we were communists, and that he was not a communist, and, “LOOK! Out the window! There! Do you know what that is? ROMANIA!” He then produced a small electronic stuffed dog with flashing green eyes that barked and jumped around on the floor hysterically while he gave it various commands, which the dog of course ignored and was punished for.

At some point he left with his two liter bottle of Ciuc to talk to people in the aisle outside the cabin, and the woman asked me in English where I was from. Thus began a very interesting discussion. I asked what the man was on about and she said, “He is furious…about everything. Yes, of course he is crazy, but we have to appreciate his right to say what he wants.”

While I agreed in principle, I had had enough of the shouting in my ear and stale beer belching, and was happy when he fell asleep just outside of Brasov but was wary of the next three hours to Sibiu, should he reawaken.

Luckily, our cabin caught fire as we approached Brasov. Apparently, something under the train was burning and we were advised to move to another cabin. We gathered our things and left the now passed-out social objector in the cabin alone. I felt bad about not waking him up, but to my simultaneous relief and irritation, he started shouting through the window something about how the burning train was a communist and how no one was going to make HIM move.

Fortunately, he did not join us in our new cabin. We continued our conversation. At some point a Romanian about my age interrupted asking a political question. He spoke perfect British English and took over the entire conversation from there. We all spoke about religion and politics and philosophy for the remainder of the trip. We exchanged information said goodbye, and parted company.

On the way home from the train station as I sat in the back of the cigarette-smoke-filled taxi whose driver had removed the window cranks, and was blaring Manele, I realized that this was the most normal part of my trip and started laughing. The driver looked at me over his shoulder and also started laughing saying something I didn’t catch, turned up the volume on the radio and began to sing.

Mateo Urquijo

Communications Angel

Driving: On the Easter week-end, precisely on Monday, I was driving my usual way to work ( even though I didn’t go to work).

I could not believe how empty the streets were. Especially on Tunari street, where you have those worn out tram lines next to old villas and little narrow side-streets, everything seemed so different than usual. The tram passed by every 10 minutes, there were some pedestrians from time to time- but that was it. Then I imagined how it used to be not so long ago in the old neighborhoods of Bucharest, without so many cars like nowadays. I must admit I loved the atmosphere. Now I think I should not start to bash the traffic and the behavior in Bucharest-everybody does and knows.

But what amazes me is that the Minister of Tourism announced that Bucharest could be a wellness destination, and the street holes should be used as a competitive advantage for tourists. This way tourists could take a horse sledge and experience authentically street holes. Well, at least she is optimistic and tries to see things positively…

Volker Moser

Bucharest Angel