sursa foto: Facebook IBM
The Council of Foreign Investors (FIC) has conducted a new Business Sentiment Index (BSI) survey, held in September 2021. The first such survey was conducted by FIC seven years ago.
Survey data show that the expectations of the Romanian business environment remain optimistic and are in line with those of March 2021. The research revealed that there is a generally positive sentiment among the Romanian business environment, in line with international developments, especially in terms of future business performance.
80% of companies still expect financial performance to grow, especially domestic activity. Nearly half (46.7%) expect exports to remain at close levels, a similar percentage to that seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
Recomandări Video
Articolul continuă mai jos
From an investment perspective, companies’ confidence in business opportunities remains high as more than 53% of companies have investment plans for the next 12 months. These results mark a new high for the BSI.
Capital investments planned for next year are correlated with companies’ workforce plans:
- 60% of companies are looking to hire staff in the coming year
- only 11% will put new hires on hold
Intentions on workforce plans for the next 12 months represent a new high since the launch of BSI. But while companies are looking for labour, unfortunately perceptions of the availability of suitable staff remain guarded, with only 39% of respondents believing the workforce is competitive, similar to pre-pandemic results.
At the same time, 60% of companies do not expect massive effects of the pandemic on their business, while 38% will be moderately affected. Employees will continue to work from home, 38% of companies expect between a quarter and half of their employees to continue working from home, while 29% expect more than half of their employees to continue telecommuting.
These responses are a signal that companies have taken all the sanitary measures in preparation for this scenario and are ready to face this situation.
The bad news remains consistently about infrastructure, transparency and coherence in the implementation of public policies, reduction of red tape and regulatory burdens, and as of 2016, areas perceived as very weak and uncompetitive by most respondents.
At the same time, FIC members believe that Romania has a great opportunity to use the funding available in the reform and resilience programme to find the most appropriate solutions to address these problems through the implementation of the NRRP. Although the political situation over the last month has not responded to the need for predictability for business, the approval of the NRRP is an important moment for this country project, which we are ready to support in the implementation phase.
Edited for English