European Funding CCRI, A Partner In Human Resources Development Projects

• ( interview with Florin Nine, Vice President of the Romania - Ireland Chamber of Commerce)

Cosmina Capalău

BURSA: How will the economic crisis influence Irish investments in Romania, in your opinion? Or Romanian investments in Ireland?

F. Nine: Both Romania and Ireland are affected by the world economic crisis. In the real estate business, where Irish investors have invested significant amounts of money in the recent years, their projects are directly influenced by the availability and cost of financing.

According to the information published on the website of the Foreign Ministry, the status of trade between Romania and Ireland is as follows: "According to Romanian statistic data, the overall value of Romania"s trade with Ireland in the first nine months of 2008 is 199.96 million EUR, of which 75.14 million EUR from exports and 124.82 million EUR from imports. The trade balance is therefore minus 49.69 million EUR."

BURSA: Are there business sectors where the value of Irish investments has decreased or stagnated lately compared to the previous year? Are there sectors where it has increased?

F. Nine: Generally speaking, the value of investments has been decreasing lately, compared to last year. Investors are still very interested in Romania, but funds are disbursed after a very careful analysis of the opportunity.

BURSA: What are your estimates regarding the value of investments this year, compared to 2008?

F. Nine: We do not expect an increase in the value of investments this year, compared to last year. However, we do expect that Romania should attract a significant percentage of the investments made in the region.

BURSA: The CCIR has recently established a department that offers consultancy to companies wishing to access structural funding. Do you believe it is possible that the current financial context could make Romanian small- and medium-sized enterprises more interested in European funding? If so, how do you see the performance of the department this year?

F. Nine: This department is the most active. They are currently finalizing the first projects for accessing European funding. We are currently working on Human Resources Development projects in which the CCRI will be a partner. The project value ranges between 300,000 EUR and 5 million EUR. We have also noted outstanding interest in accessing structural funding available through the Operational Programme - Increase of Economic Competitiveness, Renewable Energy as well as Environment.

BURSA: Given the current period of economic uncertainties, what is the most optimistic scenario regarding the CCRI activity? And the most pessimistic?

F. Nine: The most pessimistic scenario is that few projects will obtain European financing. The scenario that we want to see translated into facts is to have as many projects as possible financed and as many companies as possible interested in development based on such funding.

BURSA: What are the CCRI plans for 2009, considering the economic crisis?

F. Nine: The objectives of the Romania - Ireland Chamber of Commerce for 2009 are to attract new members in order to consolidate, especially during the crisis, and to expand the activities of the Consultancy Department in order to maximize the volume of European funding accessed with their support. As for the European Funding Department, activities are focused on both ongoing projects and information dissemination to potential customers, that is, companies interested in accessing funds made available to different sectors.

Within the information campaign, our website contains various details, from general details (about the definition of non-reimbursable funding, eligibility criteria and ways to obtain funding) to specific information such as the sectors in which companies can obtain non-reimbursable funding:

- Investment - funding is available for factories, production units, production installations, new product launches, technology upgrades, software, patents, licenses, know-how, consultancy and training.

- Micro-Enterprise Development - funding is available for acquiring space for production or service provisioning, utilities, equipment, installations, IT systems. Such funding is dedicated exclusively to micro-enterprises.

- Participation in fairs, exhibitions or international missions - funding is available to any company wishing to be present in international fairs and exhibitions, economic missions, printed materials, on-line media, new market promotion campaigns, marketing.

- International standardization - funding is available for the implementation of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or EMAS, environmentally-friendly labelling, product or service certification, testing and benchmarking laboratories.

- Employee training - this component is available to employees in all sectors of the economy. The continuous professional training programmes financed under this chapter are completed by the qualification or re-qualification of the employees, as validated by the qualification certificates.

- Training management & soft skills - funding is available for improving corporate management, labour quality, labour productivity, as well as for preventing occupational illness, updating computer skills, pollution control and environment care.

- Tourism - funding is available for accommodation and leisure facilities, developing natural sites, capitalizing on alpine tourism potential and developing spa tourism.