(P) Romania's international community joins third and most popular edition of the Expat Fair

One main focus in Romania is to continuously build relationships and have a strong network in order to succeed. “Understanding and adapting to this rapidly changing country - its culture, people, products and services - takes place through first hand information, physical presence and helpful people at one place”, said Volker Moser, co-founder of City Compass Group, at the third edition of the Expat Fair. The third edition of the Expat Fair happened on the 19th of November at The Ark and gathered more than 500 participants representing 150 companies. For three editions, the Expat Fair has been helping expats and internationals adapt in Romania and feel at home here. The visitors and partners described the third edition of the Expat Fair organized by the City Compass Group as the best one so far in terms of number of participants, concept of the event and organization. The event offered both business to consumer and business to business opportunities in a mixed format. “In Romania the relationships are more valuable than in other countries”, said Don Lothrop, Founder PressOne and RomaniaOne and participant in the panel discussion at the Expat Fair about managing a successful business in Romania. “What I experience here is a little bit different than in other countries and very important for me, as Argentinian: here, the relationship part plays a role. As an example, I have several customers all over the world and they usually treat you very bad depending on the industry, but here in Romania, each time I visit a customer it is an experience: I am well appreciated and perceived, communication and respect are involved. That makes my job really nice and I think this is a thing we can build on”, continued Gustavo Navarro, the Managing Director of CRH Romania. For Dragos Anastasiu, President and Founder of Eurolines Romania, it is easier to do business in Romania than in western countries: “In Romania it is easier to do business because the competition is not fierce and if you have the right attitude you can succeed having a prosperous business here”, added Mr. Anastasiu, who is also the President of The German-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania). Although the productivity in Romania is three times lower than in the western countries, the employees are very competent, creative and speak different foreign languages: “ Romanians can speak a lot of foreign languages, in our company, for example, I can talk to them in English, French, Spanish”, said Gustavo Navarro. Unfortunately, there is still not enough trust among Romanians, and foreign entrepreneurs have picked this up “One of the biggest problems Romanians have is their general attitude of distrust in other people and sometimes even in themselves. The most difficult thing in my opinion, is to change the people’s attitude”, added Dragos Anastasiu. “Both for foreign managers and for Romanians, motivation through leadership is essential”, said