Business Review

Some international brand packaging agencies are considering making Romania the head office for their other regional subsidiaries. The local brand packaging market is, however, only at the start, and with an estimated value of just EUR 2.5 million, experts say there is still room for growth. Current packaging trends see the market divided between international brands that maintain globally unique packaging and specifically Romanian products.

Corina Dumitrescu

For an IT business, Silicon Valley may be the El Dorado of financing, HR resources and partnerships. If you are not there, you practically don’t exist. However, most SV start-ups will fail in the first few years. So, why should a Romanian entrepreneur go to a place where the chances of success are so low? BR looks over the pros and cons with local pundits who have taken the plunge.

Otilia Haraga

A total of 28 companies, including 11 Romanian ones, have so far expressed interest in the Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) project, which will mark a premiere in physics: the intersection of a high-power laser beam and a brilliant high-energy gamma beam.

By Otilia Haraga

Since the beginning of the year, the state – in the form of its ministries or local public administrations – has announced a couple of measures to streamline the tax payment process and free citizens of the burden of queuing to pay their taxes. BR reviews these recent developments.

By Otilia Haraga

While IBM is reportedly preparing to open a research center in Targu Mures, Nokia has announced it will slash its R&D operations in Cluj. The question is whether Romania is still a low-cost country? Does it still offer attractive conditions for research and development? What other R&D centers are there? Pundits give BR the A-Z of R&D.

Otilia Haraga

As younger, tech-savvy employees with greater mobility expectations join the local workforce, organizations are being rudely awakened to a new challenge: the adoption of an ever-increasing array of mobile devices and applications while also meeting mobile security needs.

Otilia Haraga

Quick to pick up on international trends, Romanians are embracing the new mobility, using their mobile applications on-the-go. For what purpose? Industry pundits say local consumers use their smartphones to play games, check the weather forecast, peruse leisure options, read publications, check train times and look for a cab. While some consumers are prepared to pay for the application they want, freebies enjoy the most success.

Otilia Haraga

Words such as ‘sexting,’ ‘grooming,’ ‘identity spoofing’ and ‘cyber-bullying’ may sound like gibberish to some parents, but the dangers are real. These words define actual risks to which children surfing the internet are exposed, with local youngsters among the most vulnerable, according to European research. What are the threats, and how can less computer literate parents keep their children safe online?

Otilia Haraga

The voice of a talking book can be as important as the story it tells, which is why the journey of an audiobook from the studio to the book shop shelf differs significantly from regular book production. This makes audiobooks a very specific niche market, which only represents 1 percent of total book sales in Romania. And even with the promise of growth, it will remain distinct from the mass market.

Otilia Haraga

It has lately become abundantly clear that nobody is safe from Mother Nature’s mood swings, so the question for businesses is: what can you do in terms of damage limitation? Aside from exacting a heavy humanitarian toll, a natural disaster poses major economic challenges and getting back to normal also depends on data recovery. How many companies are prepared for the loss of their data? Do private and public economic players have a data backup and recovery strategy? And what risks do they run if they don’t? BR looks at the options.

Otilia Haraga