First Romanian to head AmCham: Radu Enache, HP Romania Executive
NineOclock by Anca Bernovici2007-04-03

BUCHAREST – Executive Manager of HP Romania Radu Enache was elected yesterday president of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham).

Enache is the first Romanian president of AmCham and took over the position from Roberto Musneci. In mid-March Musneci, Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Romania for approx. six years, announced leaving the pharmaceutical company management team in order to set up his own company (CMC Consulting & Intermediation) in the governmental affairs sector.

The AmCham Board also includes, as members, Calin Dragan (Coca Cola HBC), Dan Ionescu (General Electric), Alexandra Gatej (Unilever), Peter Weiss (ABN Amro Bank), Vasile Iuga (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Friedrich Niemann (Athenee Palace Hilton), Roberto Musneci (CMC Consulting & Intermediation), Obie Moore (Salans), Shahmir Khaliq (CitiGroup) and Ovidiu Artopolescu (Microsoft Romania).

Vice-Presidents of the Board are Niemann and Iuga, while Weiss is also the Board treasurer.

“AmCham plans for 2007 target improvement of the business environment in Romania, maintaining a high transparency level, attracting new members, developing new services for our members and expanding outside Bucharest, which involves cooperation with local authorities,” Friedrich Niemann stated yesterday.

Asked about the impact of recent political unrest on the business environment, Radu Enache answered that political stability contributes to business development, and AmCham supports this stability.

He added that AmCham worked with Romanian authorities last year on a number of projects, related to the European Union accession, the new Fiscal Code, the Investment Act and issues such as the labour market, small and medium enterprises, environment.

According to AmCham officials, there is room for improvement of the Fiscal Code drawn up last year. “The Government and Parliament may table bills. The business community may come up with suggestions, but whether they are paid heed to is up to the Government,” Vasile Iuga explained.

AmCham is a non-political, not for profit organisation established in 1993 by American investors in Romania.

According to AmCham, investments by American companies in Romania will continue to increase in the years to come, against the background of the EU accession. Areas of interest for American companies include the real estate market, infrastructure, IT and the heavy industry.