Activity Report 2001 (synthesis)
CAT = Creation-And-Trade
Transilvania Business Center (CAT), a regional, non-profit, apolitical and decentralized association, organized for the promotion of the member companies and achieving the local development programs, continued to fulfill its objectives and functions in accordance with the By Law and Working Rules. The Activity Program approved by the General Assembly for 2000 was realized.
The number of associated companies has grown in the YEAR m-BUSINESS with 9,1% from 1234 to 1355, as a result of introducing ICT- Information and Communication Technologies to the member firms. A number of 398 companies associated to CAT are connected to the Internet and have activity presentation sites. They were included in the FIRST TRANSYLVANIAN ELECTRONIC MARKEThttp://v-market.ro being improved the conditions of introducing of m/e-commerce. The main site for the virtual activities, CAT@CAT has over 350 interactive pages, tools and �on-line� date base, other facilities for a quick information for our members and for their potential clients, suppliers, investors or partners. The number of visitors had outrunned 27.000 for http://e-cat.ro and 12.000 visitors for http://e-bursa.ro; the frequency was 160 potential partners/day or 6,7 users/hour.
The first Multicultural Cyber City www.ClujNapoca.ro with �mirror�www.Kolozsvar.ro was made through buying also the domain www.Klausenburg.ro. The virtual citadel is endowed with the most important information concerning the history and the present of our bimillenary city. The site has 45 pages containing information and photos about: arts, culture, education, sport, tourism, public utilities, institutions, business etc. It has the first VIRTUAL MAYOR in the world, beside a Virtual Council, a electronic system of VOTING, a chat-FORUM, web cam for the weather in Cluj, and a lot of important links.
Our main objectives for 2001 concerning decentralization and virtualization of the activities, as well as creating conditions of affirmation of direct physical and virtual: �one-to-one�, �link-to-link� and �business-to-business�, were touched. CAT Cluj had become one of the most used mechanisms, physical as well as virtual of the new economy, not only in our country but also in Europe in process of Extension.
CAT was invited to participate to the following projects of European Commission:
EWEN – East West Economic Network, that will identify trans-border projects and will connect with the European co-operating within the process of integrating and extension of the European Union;
ViVa – virtual mechanisms with ERP, CRM, HRM, eBusiness, on-line consulting, for rapid economic growth of SMEs;
ENERGIA – is a Consortium for Trans-European cooperation in specific domains. For this project, CAT had organized in Cluj-Napoca in 16-17 December 2001 an important international conference. There have participated 200 firm representatives, local and central organisms, academicians, members of Parliament, ministers, media and guests from: France, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, European Commission in Brussels. http://e-cat.ro/energia.html
The CATraining&Consulting Department had realized for the CAT firms 47 missions with granted assistance from NMCP-Holland and 5 SES-Germany experts. 20 representatives of CAT companies had participated to the training program for social-economic dialogue granted by EU Consult – Danish Democracy Fund in Denmark. There were made and presented 4 local development projects, which were presented for co-financing to the European Commission. There were given over 3 700 hours of consultancy to the associated firms but also to the potential Romanian or foreign partners. There have been organized promoting seminars for business links in the frame of BREuropa project (http://e-cat.ro/breuropa.html) co-financed by EU Delegation in Romania through the PHARE-Europe Program. 70 companies received a direct benefit form this project.
Working sites: http://e-cat.ro/catconsulting.html, http://e-cat.ro/catraining.html, http://e-cat.ro/expert.html and http://e-cat.ro/catranslation.html.
The Relations Department http://e-cat.ro/catravel.html has intensified the efforts to identify markets and exhibitions, as well as foreign partners for CAT firms. There were organized 18 trade missions abroad where 21 companies and 84 businessmen participated; from those 15 were individuals and 3 groups to USA (50%), Germany(19%), France(18%), Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Spain, Czech Republic, Canada, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Seychelles.
The main domains asked by CAT members for the participation to the international fairs and international exhibitions were: civil constructions, furniture, computers, sports articles, automobiles and accessories, manufacture products, cosmetics, food products and gastronomy, tourism, investment and co-operation in production.
The Electronic Commodities Exchange was connected by the most important internal and external sources of information. It was endowed with 12 new rings specialized on basic products, next to the previous 14 virtual rings specialized on the main Transylvanian guilds. This first Transylvanian virtual mechanism is working on-line, based on a regulation made by the Transylvanian Commodities Exchange and CAT. The Exchange Bulletin is published weekly in printed form and electronichttp://e-cat.ro/buletinbursier.html. Its electronic magazine is called piat@zi and it can be accessed at the address http://e-cat.ro/e-bursa.html and http://e-cat.ro/v-bursa.html.
In the BRE-Business Links program, closed with success in June, were registrated in the Database of the European Commission, 136 cooperation proposals of our firms and over 300 direct contacts with potential partners (http://e-cat.ro/breuropafinalreport.html). In the same time there have been directly informed 465 BRE representants all over the world for partnership. There were organized virtual relations on Internet as well as direct contacts at CAT firms with foreign companies from: Italy, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Spain, Israel, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, China, Hong Kong, Korea and others. After closing the CAT-BREurope project, the activity continued, realizing:
Business Links Services-BL (http://e-cat.ro/businesslinks.html) :162 contacts with: SUA(17), CANADA(1),ITALY(13), FRANCE(5), BELGIUM(20), NETHERLANDS(23), SWITZERLAND(1), SPAIN(5), PORTUGAL(1), GREAT BRITAIN(1), GERMANY(1), AUSTRIA(1), POLAND(10), UKRAINE(5), SLOVAKIA(4), CZECH REPUBLIC(1), HUNGARY(3), YUGOSLAVIA(1), SLOVENIA(1), REPUBLIC of MOLDAVIA(1), BELARUS(1), TURKEY(5), GREECE(2), LITHUANIA(1), ARABIA(2), INDIA(7), IRAN(1), PAKISTAN(1), ISRAEL(1), SYRIA(1), NEPAL(1), EGYPT(1), NIGERIA(1), TUNISIA(1), CHINA(14), KOREA(4), TAIWAN(1), AUSTRALIA(1), MALTA(1).
The promotion of the Business Links program has registrated 142 contacts: 78 abroad and 64 in our country. The BL external contacts were developed only in electronic shape.
Into the Electronic BURSA (http://e-bursa.ro) were introduced over 400 requests/offers of goods and services, being ensured total and free transparence and accessibility of the companies and the trade transactions. The E-BURSA links with other similar Romanian and foreign sites have opened a direct access to the Single Market and Global Market, using http://e-cat.ro/e-bursa.html, http://e-cat.ro/v-bursa.html.
The Development Department continued to sustain the vocational training programs for the Transylvanians young, in which participated 110 pupils within LBC-Lyceum Business Center and 22 students of CAsT program. CAT members encouraged the activity of the students and jobs were given to some of them. For example, CAT employed 2 students and 3 pupils for different programs. The students achieved practical activities at 28 companies, 3 hotels-restaurant, 6 trade fairs, 2 JobShops. They entered in direct contact with over 200 companies. The business links initiated by the students were appreciated by the companies and CAT.
The department had benefit 3 months of a non-reimbursable assistance given through an American consultant, financed by the US- Freedom House Foundation-Washington.In the same time, the SABRE Foundation from USA had made an important books donation for pupils and students. The special results obtained, had made us to open another Lyceum Business Center at the �Gheorghe Sincai� High School, with the direct support of 14 CAT donor companies. The working sites of this department are: http://e-cat.ro/catresearch.html, http://e-cat.ro/lbcro.html, http://e-cat.ro/catshop.html, http://e-cat.ro/plicuriadacat.html, http://e-cat.ro/specat.html.
The CAT Transylvanian Date Base (http://e-cat.ro/addreseutile.html) has registered over 25.000 Transylvanian firms through the concern of LBC. Students started the date base design in web-format, for more accessibility and mobility. This application allows finding useful information about Transylvanian firms. They are grouped on: address, tel/fax, e-mail, domains and products, contact person. The addresses could be typed on envelopes and the e-mails are transmitted one-by-one or in bulk.
The collaboration with the Owners Association and the Romanian-French Business Center have lead to important achievements for developing CAT programs in our country. There have been created the Business Center in Lapus and the first Rural Business Center in Galgau.
CAT sustained in a traditional way the cultural-artistic events in the benefit of the community and for the Romanian Opera House, National Theater, Transylvanian Philharmonic, Military Circle, Art Academy, �Babes-Bolyai� University, �Economic� High School, �Gheorghe Sincai� High School, other institutions.
The collaboration continued with the local authorities, Romanian Government, Presidency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Foreign Trade Department, Ministry of European Integration, Chambers of Commerce, Romanian Embassies from abroad and the Embassies from other countries in Bucharest. CAT representatives participated to the multilateral reunions organized by the World Bank, BERD, European Commission- IST 2001, ENLARGEMENT 2001, eBusiness 2001,ViVa-EU, ENERGIA, as well as missions in: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, USA.
An important achievement on local level, finaly was realized this year with the constantly supported of CAT even since the beginning ideas; it is about the strategic project: �International Airport – Free Zone Cluj-Napoca�. This assures now a direct connection between Cluj and Transylvania with business partners from Europe and from the whole world.
Monthly there were sent business information, leaflets, publications and offers/requests to CAT members not only throughout the classic �plicuriada�, but also by e-mail. The monthly newsletters can be read on Internet at http://e-cat.ro/tbreview.html because they contain concrete activities achieved in the past year. The relations between CAT and the written and virtual media were constantly developed. Beside the local and national newspapers, radio stations and televisions associated to CAT, there have been remarked: the �e-WEEK� publication that sustains the IT programs of CAT and, the �Cluj-Napoca� magazine that supports the image of the �Transylvania Capital�and its local development projects.
The Administration Department (http://e-cat.ro/cinesuntem.html) finalized the Financial Report 2001, which was submitted to the Directors� Committee (http://e-cat.ro/catclub.html) and the Auditing Commission; the main indicators are (in million RoLei):
A. Incomes from:
B. Expenses with:
The assets value had grown from last year with 110% as a result of equipment purchases and co-financed by the European Commission within the programs: BREuroppa/PHARE-EUROPA ,ViVa-EU, ENERGIA and by some of the CAT members for the LBC program.
There was realized an outrunning of the approved budget with -16, 1% in incomes and with 34,3% in expenses. The annual deficit registrated is of 1.067,725 million lei (-48 000 Euro). It will be covered by the surplus of 503 million lei registrated in the former years, as well as the by European Commission�s payment obligations to the project ViVa-EU that values 561,725 million lei, posponed for 2002. The balance will be realized in the 2002 first semester
For assuring a good functionality of the activity and the EU projects, there has been accepted a financial support of 308 million lei (, under the form of �loan without interest�, given by the CAT President, trying to cover the delaying of the second instolement of the ViVa-EU grant, as well as the difference for covering the expenses with organizing in Cluj-Napoca of the EU-ENERGIA Conference. Both being projects of the IST-European Commission, the President took this initiative not to jeopardize their implementation. The sum will be reinburse in the 2002 after receiving the amount from the European Consortiums.
According the new laws (The Governmental Ordinance no.26/30.01.2000) there were brought changes to our associations� by-law and which were approved by the General Assembly on the 30th of May 2001.
We would like to express thanks to all our members, to the whole staff and the young collaborators. Also, we want to send a special thank you to the European Commission in Brussel for accepting CAT in the ViVa-EU Consortium, as well as its Delegation in Romania, which co-financed our successful program: Business Links-BREuropa. A worm thank you to our Transylvanian Guilds� leaders, CAT resident directors in Transylvanian cities, and to our sponsors, donors. The support and the effort given to maintain our organization among the most preferment business centers and led CAT to be recognized now, not only on regional level but also at European and World wide as a smart, creative and sustainable organization.
The documents are at the disposal of the members at CAT headquarters and they can be examined on the Internet at http://e-cat.ro/raport01.html for preparing the debates for the General Assembly, on the 1st of April 2002, 3 pm, at Disco SUN.
PresidentMat.Mircea Fodoca Ec.Iulia Movileanu
General Manager Accountant
Cluj-Napoca, April 25, 2002