Our 4-day excursion began on Sunday with a visit to the Palace of the Parliament, one of the largest buildings in the world with more than 5,000 rooms and an expression of the gigantomania of communist ruler Nicolae Ceaușescu. Large parts of the old city were demolished for the neoclassical-style building, which was begun in 1984 and not completed until after Ceaușescu's fall in 1991. Annual productions of domestic marble, wood, copper, crystal glass and brocade fabric were spent on this monstrous building, 20,000 people worked over years on the construction site. What an unimaginable effort and for what? Today the building houses the Romanian Parliament and an international conference center.

The other three days were dedicated to visits of Advantage Austria, our partner university, Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), OMV PETROM, BCR and UiPath. With the mentioned companies we visited three of the ten most valuable companies in Romania. With his lecture on the Romanian economy and foreign trade, the Austrian business delegate and head of the Advantage Austria office in Bucharest Gerd Bommer created a perfect background foil for the interpretation and understanding of the following visits. He pointed out the immense diversity of the economy, ranging from energy to industry, agriculture, tourism to high-tech companies. Unfortunately, these strengths and potentials cannot be fully exploited due to poor (transport) infrastructure, bureaucratic obstacles and legal uncertainty. Austria plays an important role in the country as the second largest direct investor: OMV Petrom, the banking subsidiary BCR of Erste Group, VIG, Agrana, Novomatic, STRABAG or Kronospan are among the best known of the 1,500 active Austrian companies.

At the partner university ASE, Vice-Rectors Dorel Paraschiv and Marius Profiroiu told us about the university's successful quality and internationalization drive. Working to obtain international accreditations is on top of their agenda. In the lecture on "Doing Business in Romania", the speakers referred to the good economic development in recent years, which made Romania one of the fastest growing economies in the EU. The current EU Recovery and Resilience Initiative is the trigger for the largest infrastructure investment program in Romania's history. Together with the 2021-27 EU budget, we are talking about EUR 100 billion! With regret we had to realize that the Austrian veto on Romania's Schengen accession is met with incomprehension among our hosts and is commented on very emotionally. Romanians feel unfairly treated and as second-class EU citizens. They resent the veto of the Austrian government. Austrian companies were themselves surprised by the decision and suddenly faced attacks and threats of boycotts. It shows how a single political decision can harm good relationships built over many years.

During the visit to OMV Petrom, the Neptune Deep gas exploration project in the Black Sea was not a topic - the current discussion about it is too sensitive. Instead, we were given an insight into GROW, the Leadership Culture Change Program, which is intended to support and drive forward the energy transition. In several waves, 700 managers and 4,000 team leaders are to be familiarized with the values "We care - We are curious - We progress" and learn to convey and implement them in their daily work.

During the visit to Erste Bank's subsidiary BCR, Ramona Kurko, executive in Corporate Banking, highlighted Romania's growth dynamics and the sectors with the best outlook: these are energy, agriculture, healthcare, telecom and transport. Romania and Poland are predicted to have good chances to benefit from the post-war economic upturn in the wake of "Rebuilding Ukraine", especially Romanian construction companies. She cited high inflation, rising raw material costs, shortages of personnel, and regulatory risk due to increasing government intervention as current management challenges. The presentation on George, Erste Bank's internet banking ecosystem, pointed at Romanians' high affinity for mobile banking. 1.3 million George users exist in Romania. 60% of BCR's service sales are through digital channels. At the same time, 40% of Romania's inhabitants are “unbanked”, they do not have a bank account. No easy feat for a bank to cover such a diverse market.

With the visit to UiPath, Romania's tech unicorn valued at US-$ 35 billion, we learned a different perspective on the Romanian economy as well as the flagship company from the software sector. Software and ICT already account for 7% of Romania's GDP and are shaping local economies in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. Founded in Bucharest in 2005 by Daniel Dines and Marius Tirca, UiPath has approximately US$ 1 billion in global sales and is the world's largest provider of Robotic Process Automation software and services. While significant research and development activities are still based in Romania, in 2017 the headquarters were transferred to New York City, where the company is also listed on the NYSE. Despite advances in AI and product development, according to the speaker Serban Popescu, the technology sector is always about people, who need to be convinced of the benefits and stimulated to use the software to make the product a success.

The evening with alumni of the Bucharest Executive MBA program was particularly memorable for the students. Stefan Popescu, coordinator of the WU Alumni Hub Bucharest, organized for a talk with us the alumni Gabriela Marin, Radu Pojoga and Liviu Serban. The personal stories of these successful managers and entrepreneurs impressed the MC CEE students. Especially their desire to help their country and society, to contribute to the further development of the country with their international knowledge and experience impressed them.

No MC CEE students had been to Bucharest or Romania before. The strong contrasts between rich and poor, modernity and tradition, foreign and local companies were surprising for most. The friendliness and openness of our hosts (despite the Schengen veto) remain unforgettable. The diversity of the economy, the multitude of growth opportunities and the efforts to tackle the problems make us confident for Romania's future.

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