After returning to London in 2000 after spending most of the previous four years abroad, I only managed another four years back in England before deciding to move back to Romania towards the end of last year. But why?
As everyone born in England but outside London knows, the streets are paved with gold. After paying for a small two bedroom flat in London zone 2 (equivalent to the Piata Domenii area in Bucharest) I finally understood that the gold is in fact used to build the foundations of London properties to justify their prices. Bucharest is heading the same way but fortunately there is some time to go.
As my wife is originally from Romania (she left Romania in 1994 on a Soros scholarship to attend a private school then university in England), we had several Romanian friends whilst living in London.
I discovered that there are broadly three categories of Romanians living in London. The first are the "workers" who come over to the UK for 1-2 years to earn money to help build a house or buy a flat in Romania on their return. They can normally be seen smoking outside the Romanian Church in Central London on a Sunday morning. In generals they have not integrated with English people due to language problems and a lack of spending money as their earnings are normally saved for a future life back in Romania.
The middle group are young professionals who have made it over to London on the basis of brainpower and ambition rather than connections. We had friends in London who worked in every field imaginable from law, accountancy, journalism, investment banking and property development.
What was clear from that group was that the ultimate destiny of Romania will be secured if it continues to produce people of that quality who remain in Romania. From this group a few have returned to Romania. This has proven to be a struggle initially as the level of professionalism in Bucharest is lower, whilst the levels of enthusiasm and willingness to learn new things is far greater than back in London. The skill of converting enthusiasm and willingness to learn into experience and professionalism is the next challenge in Romania.
The top group are younger people who have influential families back in Romania. This group was always very closed to outsiders and will decrease as the Romanian system matures.
The general enthusiasm and willingness to learn is one of the many reasons I came back to Romania. It is a fresh challenge to work in such a positive and enthusiastic environment compared with the very rigid way in which life and your job work in the UK.
Other issues such as avoiding London public transport (so called as almost every other member of the public is on it when you are) and not having to pay Euro 150 for a meal for two in Bucharest (quite standard in central London) also helped persuade me that a move back to a fast growing Romania was the right choice.
This was not so easily understood by friends and family back in London.
The perception of Romania in the eyes of the majority of English people is unfortunately either one of total ignorance or only a slight, normally incorrect, understanding of street children, Gypsies and orphanages. As so little about Romania appears in English newspapers the closest that English people get is reading about Adrian Mutu before he left Chelsea late last year.
There is sadly very little that can be done about this which is why my visiting English friends are constantly amazed when they receive such warm hospitality, visit beautiful parts of the country and enjoy a very high level of service and quality in Bucharest's hotels, restaurants and cafes.
It is by foreigners visiting Romania for business and pleasure that its name and a more positive reputation will begin to spread to the other countries of Europe and the larger world. I am trying in a small way to promote Romania by inviting friends and family to visit Romania regularly. So far most of the things they expected to be bad (food, hotels, local traditions, foreign language skills, tourist sites outside Bucharest) have all proved to be excellent. I have stayed in several 5-star hotels in many countries in Western Europe and America. Not one can come close to the level of service you will find in the main big six hotels in Bucharest.
Conversely, Romania has surprised my friends by what is bad (Bucharest roads, rubbish - even in the countryside, lack of interesting tourist sites in Bucharest and rude officials).
What is clear is that the positives outweigh the negatives. There is plenty good to say about Romania. We just have to make sure that someone is listening.
* Oliver Meister is an English lawyer based in Bucharest working for CME, a US company that invests in television stations in Eastern Europe, including Pro TV, Acasa and Pro Cinema in Romania. He is also a director of Pro TV SA, the operator of the Romanian television channels CME has invested and is part of the management team that supervises the television station Studio 1+1 which CME owns in Ukraine
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
