Opinion

Sovereign bonds protected the non-bank financial market from risks caused by pandemics, and the aversion to risk of investors has come out during the crisis caused by COVID through their migration from stock markets to government securities.

When a person is freshly joining a new company, he is not yet conditioned so much by the new collective he is working in. This is not in itself a problem, at the contrary; new people have a fresh look on the company and can therefore be very useful to consult, if the top management is ready for that.

The Netherlands Romanian Chamber of Commerce represents the business interests of its members and Dutch companies in Romania. With so much going on in the forefront, it is sometimes easy to forget what goes on behind the scenes. So, let’s have a look at the beating heart of the NRCC, responsible for executing all those events and more: the Executive Team. We meet the team in their HQ, which is at Athénée Palace Hilton Bucharest.

August marked an important moment for the Greek community in Romania - the opening of a new medical centre with Greek capital, the Atena Medical Center clinic.

For a long time competitive computer games have not only been played in the dark bedrooms of teens. In fact, this has become a highly professional scene with prize money and audience ratings competing with sports events such as the National Football League and the Champions League. In Austria, esports have now taken their place as a mainstream activity in society.

My Romanian friends know that as a British person, talking about the weather comes easily to me. This has been particularly so after what, for me at least, has been a summer of lovely weather in Bucharest and in Scotland. It will however have escaped few of us that elsewhere in the world, people have not been so fortunate with their weather.

According to the latest business opinion polls, the main concerns of the company managers are: pandemics (52%), cyber threats (47%), over-regulation (42%), public policy uncertainty (38%) and uncertain economic growth (35%), a recent PwC study shows. Hence it is not just the pandemic that scares. The real economy is also afraid of the way the governments react to crisis (over-regulation, over-taxation). Many fear that the changes in fiscal policy caused by the increase in the level of public debt during the pandemic could lead to an increase of the total fiscal obligations of the organizations in the post-pandemic period.

In the Western world, more and more employees are experiencing signs of burnout. According to an American study from last year, about 75% of them are concerned by this. In this context, it is no wonder that people think about stepping out, having a break. The sabbatical leave is one of the most popular ways to do that. A sabbatical is a time-off period from your work, paid or not, without losing contractual relations to the employer. A recent English study shows that 15% of employers already offer this possibility to their staff.

This last year, Romanian business market became more and more preoccupied with digitalisation. From this point of view, the pandemic has been for entrepreneurs a time for reflection, and the results shall materialise in the near future. If we are to identify a positive aspect of the pandemic context, I think about expediting the digitalisation process.

The exhibition has as roots the celebration of the 200 years since the start of the Greek Revolution of 1821, on the initiative of the Cultural Association of Greeks in Romania “NOSTOS” with the support of The Hellenic Romanian Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece to Romania.