International Business Opportunities

Beginning April 15, 2007, Romania will reintroduce import VAT at customs for imports from non-EU countries for a fixed period.

The Romanian government said the measure will not affect those importers who brought in significant imports and met the criteria to be granted a VAT-postponing certificate in 2006.
The decision was made as the National Agency of Fiscal Administration found that fiscal evasion was on the increase since the country suspended import VAT for non-EU countries in January 2007. […]

According to the Romanian government there is a risk that VAT-exempted goods supposed to be delivered to a EU country do not reach their destination but are placed on the black economy.

15 out of the 27 EU countries currently apply the system of import VAT at customs. Out of the ten countries that acceded to the EU in 2004, Estonia, Czech Republic and Lithuania are currently applying the simplified payment system. Hungary used the simplified VAT payment system at the accession date, but later suspended it for the same reasons Romania did. (Source)

Even without offering it the prospect of full membership, European Union is offering Ukraine to negotiate a free trade pact, in the effort to build closer political and economic ties with this country […]

Negotiations on a free trade pact as part of a broad so-called enhanced agreement between Brussels and Kyiv is conditional on Ukraine joining the World Trade Organization.
The enhanced agreement does not offer the prospect of future EU membership. […]
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said:
“A free trade area established after Ukraine’s accession to the WTO; this is the nearest task that we should implement”. Read more…

As the real estate market in Romania is excessively unstable, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) is forced to intervene through its credit policies, said BNR councilor Adrian Vasilescu.

The real estate market is full of hope about the effects of the accession to the EU, said the official, expecting citizens of member states to rush in with lots of money to buy property in Romania.

The BNR governor’s aide drew the attention of realtors to two issues.
On the one hand, both citizens of EU member states and Romanians (about whom the institution recently revealed that their deposits in banks outside Romania has almost reached the one billion euro threshold) might be much less attracted by the local offer, which is already more expensive than that of other countries in the region.(source)

Increasingly companies are looking to Eastern Europe countries as destinations for outsourcing, among them, Bulgaria is becoming very attractive lately.

Low salaries, qualified labour force, and the location so close to Western and Central Europe are the factors driving the interest of European Businesses toward Bulgaria.

It is estimated between 10 and 20 European companies negotiate every month about relocation of their activities to Bulgaria.
Data processing, IT & software programming, and call centres are the services mostly outsourced to Bulgaria.

Hewlett Packard has recently established a global client service centre employing 1000 people in Sofia. ( source )