Guest writer Matt Sampalean highlights for Romania-Insider.com the main reasons to choose the central Romanian city of Cluj for a new investment or a new start in life.I wanted something different. The big-city rat race wasn’t doing it for me. I wasn’t in any state to settle at my job, to put a down-payment on a thirty-year condo mortgage, to get a long-term girlfriend and then to rinse and repeat.
A lot of it had to do with not knowing what I wanted exactly, but I knew I didn’t want ‘this’. And even when I first visited Cluj in 2010, I didn’t think Cluj would be ‘it’. After all, what could a Romanian city with less than half-a-million inhabitants have to offer anybody from a North American metropolis? It was almost a quaint notion. Still is in some ways.
Crossing the entire city, end to end, in twenty minutes? That’s like a drive to the grocery store in Toronto. Tallest building has like, what, fifteen floors? Ha, how puny. There are bigger roller coasters back where I’m from. Oh, is that an Indian restaurant? Yes, the one and only. There is also an iStyle for all your Apple needs. What’s iStyle? Also, with the only escalators in the city at Iulius Mall it sounds like I’ll be doing a lot of my own stair climbing. Confirmed.
And yet, three years later, here I still am.
Turns out walking to the grocery store is way better than driving there. And the lack of tall buildings means I get a nice view of the surrounding hills. Does your big North American city have hills? No, didn’t think so.
Also, escalators aren’t quite as picturesque, are they? As for iStyle/Apple, who cares, I never bought an Apple product and I’m perfectly fine. The one Indian restaurant is owned by an Indian gentleman, a Colonel mind you, who hires the chefs from India. Nothing to complain about there. But I’ve already suggested Cluj might be the best city on earth. Granted, that was all based on my own experiences. So let’s take a look at some hard facts.
1. Lowest Air Pollution in the EU – A recent research project carried out by a French magazine in collaboration with the “Respire” association found Cluj to be the best city in the EU for air quality, edging out Edinburgh in Scotland. The mountain air helps, as does the relatively small size of the city, but the report mentions that it ought to be taken with a grain of salt, as Cluj only has two stations that measure pollution levels. That being said, you can feel the clean air here anytime you get away from the main roads or the busy city center. I even forgot the word ‘smog’ while living here.
2. Overall Satisfaction – The most recent version of a EU report that aims to determine how citizens perceive quality of life in their home cities had Cluj sandwiched between Amsterdam and Graz, in 8th place, out of 79 EU cities. Ninety-six percent of respondents declared themselves “satisfied” (or better) with life in Cluj. They didn’t ask me, but count me in!
3. Integration of Foreigners – The very same report asked its respondents whether “they agreed or disagreed with two specific statements regarding foreigners: firstly, that the presence of foreigners is good for their city ; and, secondly, that foreigners who live in their city are well integrated.” Cluj was in first place, with 91 percent of respondents issuing positive responses to both questions. It’s not surprising though, Romania as a whole is friendly to foreigners, and most people in the larger cities have, at the very least, a basic grasp of English or another major European language.
4. Cluj is Open for Business – Some will say this is contentious. I was just talking to a friend who says the city is being held back by corrupt officials. Indeed, a former mayor just received a four-year prison sentence for corruption, the head of the Cluj County Council is also under arrest in a kickback scandal, and there is very little trust in the public institutions in general. But, things do happen. I’ve seen the growth over the past three years and it’s obvious that the city isn’t stagnating in any way, on the contrary.
To complete the list, here are a handful of business and self-employment opportunities in or around Cluj:
5. Startup/ IT Business – Talented developers, government incentives in the IT sector, and blazing fast internet are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier in the year Intel acquired a company with a local office. Facebook has recently done the same with Cluj-founded LiveRail. HP, IBM, Yardi/ Property Shark, and SDL also number among the big names here. While outsourcing is still the bulk of software work done in Cluj, startups are catching on in a big way.
6. Art Studio – A new book names Cluj alongside eleven other ‘art cities’ to watch in the future. The local market may be in its infancy, but there is a big community of talented and creative people here. Check out this steam-punk bistro pub.
Read more HERE
