Medicover founder: Low salaries and good productivity keep Romania competitive

Jonas af Jochnick, founder of medical services operator Medicover, of cosmetics company Oriflame and of investment fund Oresa Ventures, says "times will be less hard next year" in Romania and that unlike in other countries, the impact of the crisis has not been so significant because of the low level of consumer loans.

"We saw at our consumer business Oriflame that things are better this year than last year. We also see at Medicover in the last few months that more companies are resorting to our services. As far as our lab division (Synevo i.e.), the state sector had financing problems, but our private sector revenues have increased. Demand is returning at Oresa, as well. This has been a trend emerging in the last three or four months," Jonas af Jochnick told Ziarul Financiar.
The businessman sent out the optimistic message as to Romania's macroeconomic progression at the inauguration of a 10 million-euro investment in a sizeable lab located just outside Bucharest, next to the Bucureşti-Piteşti motorway. He added that Romania had not lost its main competitive edge, its low wages and good productivity.