When it comes to economic growth, Bucharest now rivals the major European capitals. " In the least developed countries of Europe, major cities such as Bucharest or Bratislava are much more like Rome, Madrid or Copenhagen than any other region of these same countries. ", states the 2018 World Bank report. According to the Doing Business ranking, Romania is ranked 45th out of 190 countries for its ability to make it easier for businesses to do business, behind France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden. Yet, with GDP growth of 7 % in 2017, the Romanian economy has become Europe's growth champion.
With one million employees, the Bucharest job market has set a new record. The Bucharest-Ilfov region, comprising Ilfov county and Bucharest municipality, represents 27% of the country's GDP. Above all, it alone contributes 55% of the total income of Romanian companies. Promoters of the European dream, company employees have appropriated the old saying, " The job is a gold bracelet "The Romanian capital's unemployment rate has fallen to 1.5% of the working population. As a result, the unemployment rate in the Romanian capital has fallen to 1.5% of the working population, i.e. the best score for 23 years.
With more than a quarter of its employees working for multinationals, Bucharest has been slowly trading in its wooded gardens for the glass and steel of new business districts. The other side of the coin: getting around the capital is becoming increasingly complicated. According to the 2017 Traffic Index from TomTom Telematics - renamed Webfleet Solutions since its takeover by Bridgestone - the Romanian metropolis has the worst traffic jams in Europe, with journey times almost doubling, having increased by 7% in one year.
The office capital
Office property was the first segment to emerge from the crisis, after Romania became one of the most sought-after countries for outsourcing and IT development. Demand for new business spacesThe Romanian economy, which exploded following Romania's accession to the European Union, is driven in particular by local and international companies in the industrial, energy and IT sectors. At the top of the list of developers who have transformed the Romanian capital are names such as Globalworth, the leader in Romanian and Polish real estate, Portland Trust, a Czech investor, and Skanska, the Swedish giant. These three operators share the majority of the total stock of 2.5 million square metres of office space built in the urban and suburban region of Bucharest.
The office skyscrapers and 'smart business' culture that have taken over the once grey neighbourhoods inherited from the old regime explain why the city has become so popular. the emergence of a new urban social classThese are the "white collar workers". These new inhabitants of Bucharest, most of whom have adopted the city, work long hours to earn €700 a month, the highest average net salary in the country. Waking up at 5.30 a.m. - due to the infernal traffic and crowded underground trains - to be in the office by 9 a.m. before leaving their workplaces after 10 p.m., these dynamic young executives swear by individual success.
A quarter of these employees work in modern offices in the upmarket Pipera district. Located in the north of the capital, this local Wall Street area, popular with banks and businesses, has taken on the air of an international business hub. Barely a square kilometre wide, Pipera covers more than 750,000 m2 offices. This district is home to the head offices of most major groups Like Amazon, which occupies one of the brand new buildings designed by Globalworth. With other names such as Microsoft and General Motors also established in Pipera, this chic district is expecting to invest between two and three billion euros over the coming years. By 2020, 800,000 square metres of office space should be completed. In contrast, work-sharing spaces, which account for only 1% of office space, are relying more on a redefinition of coworking to offer reinvented, more personalised spaces that break away from the traditional office environment.
IT talent pool
" Hiring brilliant people from all over the world is a challenge for us, but there's a unique talent pool in Bucharest that we're going to draw on. "explains Eric Friedman, Managing Director of Technology at Fitbit, the leader in connected watches. After acquiring Bucharest-based start-up Vector Smartwach, the connected health player is continuing to expand in the Romanian capital by launching a recruitment campaign to attract new talent. The start-up, which wants to encourage investment in tech, is also preparing a start-up accelerator project, and is also looking to invest in training and research.
Other big names to have chosen Bucharest for their R&D activities include Adobe, SAP, Ixia, NXP and Bitdefender, the city's capacity for innovation leaves little doubt. The Romanian DNA of major digital firms such as Facebook, Microsoft and Hootsuite is no longer a secret. In fact, Romanian is the second language spoken in Microsoft offices around the world, after English.
Romanians' natural predilection for the sciences, mathematics and foreign languages, their pronounced taste for technology and their low cost of living and housing all contribute to making Bucharest a real centre of the digital economy. And the icing on the cake, tax breaks of 16% are granted to developers.
So Bucharest has something to say about the start-up ecosystem. ICCEfest and DefCamp, the Eastern European version of Defcon, the American hacker extravaganza, are just a few examples of local initiatives that appeal to a vibrant community. These meetings attract over 5,000 participants every year, including major groups such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, CNN, New York Times, Orange Fab, Kaspersky and Verizon. These meetings simply confirm one fact: the eyes of the global tech world are riveted on this city, ranked as one of the most 'internet friendly' in the world.
