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ROMANIANS LIKE TO DObusiness face-to-face; theyconsider e-mails and faxestoo impersonal. Actually, it'smore like eyeball-to-eyeball.Eye contact is very impor-ran t to them. and they typ i -cal ly communicate onlyhalf-an-arm's length apart.Touching is frequent too, andthey're given to ltalian-stylegesticulation. It's all aboutsincerity, openness and buil-ding trust. Basical ly, theRomanians l ike to get upclose and personal.

The speakers at this mon-th's FirstTuesday gave us aclose-up on this and variousother aspects of Romania.First was the country'sDiplomatic Counsellor here,Dr Nicolae Iordan-Constan-t i n e s c u , w i t h s o m e b a s i cfacts about his homeland:"Ronania sat at the cross-roads of three great empires- Russ ia r r , j t toman andAustro-Hungarian - whichmarked our present and ourhiston; ' . 0ne surprising trace'1eft.

not by rhose empires.but by l2th-century settlersf rom Luxembourg . was l in -guist ic: "There is some dan-ger that the 'Ldtzebuerger

Sprooch' may disappear[here], but don't worry, it cansrill be found in Transyluania,where there are a lot ofpeople who still speak if'.

0n Romania's economy, hesaid unemployment is 4.50/oI l m i l l i on peop le) , sa la r iesare 1ow [monthly average ofUS$ 5oo-1,500 for a generalmanager, 300-900 for a spe-cialized engineer, 100 for abilingual secretary), but FDIin 2OO3 was US$ 10.4 billion.

inflation is falling, and therehas been 5olo annual GDPgrowth since 2000. Dr Iordanproudly claimed that Romania'sICT infrastructure "can com-pete with any in the world",citing the particular successof Romanian an t iv i rus so f t -ware firms.

Mr Georges Calteux, thesecond speaker, of Luxem-bourg's Serrice des Sites etMonuments Nationaur, tal-ked about Luxembourg sinvo lvement in renovat ingh is to r ica l s i tes in Romania ,notably the 'Maison deLutembourg', in the town ofSibiu, which accommodatesa tour is i o l f i ce . languagecentre and Kulturcafd, andwil l house the Luxe m-bourgish Consulate.

He confirmed that Luxem-bourg 's her i tage in Romaniais strong, that he was indeeda b l e t o c o m m u n i c a t e i nLdtzebuergescft there, andhighlighted another connec-t ion: fort i f icat ions in thetown o f A lba- lu l ia a re verysimilar to those in Luxem-bourg city, as both were builtby Vauban in the XMIth cen-tury.

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Mr Bernard Elvinger wasnext at the mic: "I see greatopportunities for Lurem-bourgish SMEs, financialinstitutions, handicrafis etc.in Romania". His company,Agrilux, has been operatingsuccessfully there for many

years. He praised its businessclimate, saying there was "no

lack of skilled labour, inclu-ding IT staff'. Frequentmed ia focus on negar iveaspects - safety, corruption,poverty - ts "eraggerated",

he said. "I always feel welco-me and perfectly safe there".He said his business hadn'tencountered any corruptionand claimed that it was moreof an issue for "big compa-n ies rha t come in to Romaniawith pockets full of moneyand their ovn set of laws".He couldn't deny the poveftyissue, though. "There is nodoubt that you wil l seepouerty, owing to lack of

entplovnent and wages thatare ua) ' be low lhose inLu, ren tbourg" , bu t he sa idsalaries were rising steadily,contr ibuting to increasedquality of life. He also saidRonrania was "a uery beauti-

Jul cottntn, for tour[sm, andgreat for f ishing".

C lara Moraru . Manag ingD i r e c l o r o f 0 u l s o u r c i n gPartners Ltd (and Romania'sunoff icial ambassador toFirstTuesday networking),provided useful insightsabout the etiquette to observewhen doing business in hercountry: "Romanians are uerytraditional; pride, honour and'sauing

face' are important,

as are respectful behauiour,

formal dress and punctuality".Once you've avoided all thesocial minefields and earnedtheir respect, though, theyare very friendly and gene-rous, especially with theirfood and 'ruic' (wine), whichflows copiously at businesslunches that often last allday long.

Incidentally, the Romaniane x p r e s s i o n f o r ' C h e e r s ! ' i s'Norocl ' , but don't be temp-ted to say 'Prostl' - it means'stupidl Bear this in mindn e x I t i m e a R o m a n i a n i seyeballing you over a glassof tuic. wNcii l" learl ir l i l

6emnge: e a l teux , C ia ra Mmnaru , Me f f ie rnard Etv ingerand mr fd ico tae in r r ian-Constan t incse u .

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