Last week, I had the opportunity to go back to Romania, more concretely to Bucharest, through my involvement in an European network of researchers in the area of Prospective/Foresight. The meeting was quite interesting, allowing the exchange of different national experiences, the exploration of common work possibilities and contributing for the conceptual, methodological, and empirical “densification” of the discipline. The usual thing in these European networks (when they go well, of course).
I had been in Romania 12 years ago, involved in an European project of implementation of a Business Innovation Centre in Timisoara, in the west of the country.
At the time, the image I retained both of Timisoara and of the rest of the country was quite greyish (in spite of recognizing the richness of its landscape), of a castrating poverty, of detachment, contrasting with the cultural and historical dimensions of these places. They were accounts of an Orwellian dictatorship, communist and populist, which managed and conditioned everything, spearheaded by Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena.
The cars and buses fell apart, except for the limousines of dealers (of people, drugs, arms, etc.) that beneficiated a lot with the conflicts associated to the desegregation of Yugoslavia.
Today, if in Bucharest, we can still find signals of the anachronic dictatorship of Ceausescu and comrades (though similar signal also still exist, for example, in Berlin), not much is left of that Romania of 1994.
There are still a few Dacia but the company has been, meanwhile, bought by Renault. There are loads of BMW and similar cars. The multinationals are present all over the country and have become landmarks of the capital’s image. The center of Bucharest can be perfectly mistaken by any other European capital. Deloitte Offices, young executives of dark suits, design coffees and bars, restaurants of every colours and forms, Irish pubs… The Ibis Hotel has rooms, on special offer, at 99€/night (in 1994 to cross Timisoara in a falling apart taxi , in roads full of potholes cost something like 4 escudos in the exchange rate of the time).
The traffic is chaotic. At night, I watch BBC and Chelsea TV in my hotel room. Everything is transformed, everything is built. Roads, motorways, apartments, skyscrapers. Distribution is also on a high with the presence of great European networks like Lidl and Carrefour.
There are also Portuguese. Lena Construções is, for example, in charge of the motorway connection works between the airport and the city. Coindu (upholsteries) is also present in Romania, like Mota-Engil, Infosistema (information systems consultancy) and, of course, BCP (just to give some examples). The bathroom of my hotel was equipped with ‘Valadares’ Ceramic.
There are clear signs that some Portuguese groups (essentially linked to construction) understood that they can replicate in the East the experience accumulated in Portugal. Romania is only an example that is still just starting.
Therefore the doubts I have in relation to those who defend that it is this time that Portuguese capital, given the possible profitability reduction of the sectors linked to the “soil” (construction and similar) and to distribution, would finally start to look with more attention towards industries and services linked to knowledge.
At the end of the day, let’s be frank, why do it differently in Portugal if we can earn so much more money doing the same in any other place?
I had been in Romania 12 years ago, involved in an European project of implementation of a Business Innovation Centre in Timisoara, in the west of the country.
At the time, the image I retained both of Timisoara and of the rest of the country was quite greyish (in spite of recognizing the richness of its landscape), of a castrating poverty, of detachment, contrasting with the cultural and historical dimensions of these places. They were accounts of an Orwellian dictatorship, communist and populist, which managed and conditioned everything, spearheaded by Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena.
The cars and buses fell apart, except for the limousines of dealers (of people, drugs, arms, etc.) that beneficiated a lot with the conflicts associated to the desegregation of Yugoslavia.
Today, if in Bucharest, we can still find signals of the anachronic dictatorship of Ceausescu and comrades (though similar signal also still exist, for example, in Berlin), not much is left of that Romania of 1994.
There are still a few Dacia but the company has been, meanwhile, bought by Renault. There are loads of BMW and similar cars. The multinationals are present all over the country and have become landmarks of the capital’s image. The center of Bucharest can be perfectly mistaken by any other European capital. Deloitte Offices, young executives of dark suits, design coffees and bars, restaurants of every colours and forms, Irish pubs… The Ibis Hotel has rooms, on special offer, at 99€/night (in 1994 to cross Timisoara in a falling apart taxi , in roads full of potholes cost something like 4 escudos in the exchange rate of the time).
The traffic is chaotic. At night, I watch BBC and Chelsea TV in my hotel room. Everything is transformed, everything is built. Roads, motorways, apartments, skyscrapers. Distribution is also on a high with the presence of great European networks like Lidl and Carrefour.
There are also Portuguese. Lena Construções is, for example, in charge of the motorway connection works between the airport and the city. Coindu (upholsteries) is also present in Romania, like Mota-Engil, Infosistema (information systems consultancy) and, of course, BCP (just to give some examples). The bathroom of my hotel was equipped with ‘Valadares’ Ceramic.
There are clear signs that some Portuguese groups (essentially linked to construction) understood that they can replicate in the East the experience accumulated in Portugal. Romania is only an example that is still just starting.
Therefore the doubts I have in relation to those who defend that it is this time that Portuguese capital, given the possible profitability reduction of the sectors linked to the “soil” (construction and similar) and to distribution, would finally start to look with more attention towards industries and services linked to knowledge.
At the end of the day, let’s be frank, why do it differently in Portugal if we can earn so much more money doing the same in any other place?
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