Cristian Secosan, general manager of Siemens SRL, the domesticsubsidiary of Germany's Siemens industrial giant developing inRomania a business of above 300m euros by serving such markets asenergy, transport or healthcare, says the worst is not over yet,with certain businesses due to be hit harder this year.
"A lot of investments were halted (in 2009 i.e.), with costcutting as the motto. For many the worst is not over yet because,as we did, in 2009 they lived off the long-term contracts theygained years ago. This is how things happen on this market.Unfortunately, unless we get projects, the fallout will be serious,and honestly I do not believe we'll see major projects beingresumed in 2010," says Secosan, who has been running Siemens SRLsince mid-2009.
At that time, Secosan said it was because of the long-termcontracts the company had that the crisis fallout was not stronglyfelt in 2009, but, as new orders are late to come up, thesignificant declines may come in 2010.
He does not believe the major electricity generation projectsannounced as early as 2008 will start this year, either, despitethe Economy Ministry's optimism with regard to the projects worthsome 2bn euros.
Secosan says that after a year when companies only thought ofsurvival, 2010 will be a year of caution. "(...) I believe thiscaution about costs at companies will maintain, but I do notbelieve we'll see redundancy programmes similar with last year's,"Secosan also says.
Siemens' boss says the situation generated by the crisis in manyfields could have been improved had European funds been used, butbecause of last year's political instability this financingresource was largely left untouched.
"The crisis reached us later and this is why when economiesaround us were falling, things were still working out domesticallyand many had the impression nothing would change. In 3-6 months, itreached us, too, and amid the political instability a lot of money,particularly European funds, was not spent, which could have madethe difference for many fields," Secosan also said.
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