That is an older idea of mine - in Romania there are some so-called software parks, one of them in Galati, but as far as know from some insiders things are not as bright as they appeared on the paper, that's an old story though.
Now, one may expect the success of such a cluster is a result of external and internal factors, which combined may lead to a profitable proposition for all the actors involved. Such factors and my comments on their Romanian (Bucharest in specific) attributes are:
- a university - plenty of them around, unfortunately the Romanian academics are generally old and teach outdated curricula. The related research is along the same line, everybody is complaining about the lack of money, failing to realize that the good and interesting projects will alaways have funds available. Besides the massive funding from EU most of which had to be returned because of the lack of projects. In spite of such a system, the Romanian students are still fairly well prepared for mainly two reasons: they start working during early stages of their life (I know cases of people starting even while in high school) and they are genuinely open to learn new cool things if they found a proper learning environment. If not, they will learn by themselves.
- a leading company - I thought/hoped that Gecad will give a big impulse and motivation to the local IT landscape, my feeling is that it didn't, even though there are some Romanian companies with interesting models and/or products. But besides Gecad, which is involved in the e-payment solutions area these days, there are few to none innovative companies that would be high profilers and make a success story - I wish I was wrong with that and please somebody correct me if so.
- availability of venture capital - I think there is plenty of it, I know some of the VCs are complaining that it is hard to find projects, also see point number one above. Not to be neglected also is the National Bank's statement that they sit on 7bn euro which they're not able to find investments for in the Romanian economic landscape.
- effective governmental action - poor to most ineffective, if you want to do business in Romania the best case scenario is that the government won't make any blocks, under no case expect a hand from it. The legislation is unclear and very interpretable, public clerks are very poorly prepared and not customer oriented, the system is outdated, with a big inertia that in itself is the source favouring corruption and such, etc, etc, etc. But if one outsource the relationship with the authorities one can make very profitable business.
- entrepreneurial spirit - so'n'so, I am familiar with many young people considering or already getting involved in entrepreneurial activities. Problem is that there's no formal education for encouraging or at least giving you some sort of idea on how to do it and what it means. There are however a few private programs, but they're low profile.
- good competitive intelligence - it depends on the people and their ability to make use of it - there are some good sources around.
- networking among people - not everybody is comfortable with it, Bucharest is like a small village whereas everybody knows everybody. There are several networks centered around interests of course, also plenty of events, fairs and other networking occasions, though in general I know that Romanians are not very comfortable with talking first to people they don't know.
- the quality of infrastructure, in particular for the transport, and the quality of the environment. - bad to medium. Keep in mind that Romania is quite a big country and is served by only one highway up to date. Travelling by train is cheap and comfortable and the plane tickets are expensive. The environment started to become an issue these years.
So this is what the picture looks like and probably the reason for which we don't have in Bucharest a cluster Sillicon Valley-like. This image also has to consider the brain drain and the so-what Romanian atitude.
