{"id":421,"date":"2008-02-15T22:47:07","date_gmt":"2008-02-15T19:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=421"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:41:28","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:41:28","slug":"answering-your-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2008\/02\/15\/answering-your-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering your questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShould I be worried watching RON going down?\u201d
\n<\/strong>Jonathan L., Manchester
\n– Once a mother had 2 daughters. One of them got married to a farmer, who wanted most of the times rain, so as to have sufficient water for his crops. The other one got married to a worker who was building roofs, he needed sunshine so as to be able to work and finish fast his work. So, the poor mother did not know what to pray for: Rain or sun?
\nI know that a strong RON and a weak EURO\u00a0are better for the poor workers and many parts of the society, in our case the Romanian society. But in the same time the economy loses rhythm, because the strong RON squeezes the exports, while it encourages the imports. We saw the results last year, with the Romanian trade deficit climbing to a new historical record, around \u2013 20.000.000.000 euros! This brought also strong inflation, much higher than all predictions (in January it rose up to 7,26%!)
\nIn my opinion, the policy of weak RON is the best for Romania today. Exports, production, attraction of Foreign Direct Investments and real estate market will benefit from this, together with almost all the healthy parts of the economy. In long term, Romania will achieve much more with a weak RON, than with a strong one. For us, the investors, it is obvious that we want a weak currency, so as our money (euros or pounds) to have more value and also to invest in an economy that rises faster and with a steady pace.
\nZiarul Financiar newspaper had a very interesting article about this:
\nhttp:\/\/www.zf.ro\/articol_160949\/isarescu__the_euro_will_stay_high_this_year.html<\/a>
\n\u201cAs a foreign businessman is it difficult to do business in Romania?\u201d
\n<\/strong>Gregory F., New York
\n– It is really simple to do business in Romania. The business environment is \u201cinvestors friendly\u201d and the most important factor is how serious you are as a businessman. I have met hundreds of foreigners doing business here. Most of them do not have a clear strategy and opinion for what they want to do. I also see many people trying to do business forgetting the basic rules they follow in their own countries: Lawyers, accountants and other serious people are vital for any business. When I see \u201cbusinessmen\u201d avoiding using their services, then how can these \u201cbusinessmen\u201d complain for difficult problems in Romania?<\/p>\n

\u201cI read in the news about Mercedes and other big companies that they will invest in new factories in Romania. Why here and not other Eastern European countries?
\n<\/strong>Bogdan N., Cluj
\n– Well, Bogdan, there are really many reasons. Some of them could be:<\/p>\n