Opportunities in Eastern Europe
As the saying goes, it is better to have a good neighbour than a distant friend. But at Larive International, we are fortunate to have good friends as well as neighbours. This week, we will focus on the opportunities and recent developments in Eastern Europe and share key insights from a few of our highly experienced partner offices. Since the inception of the Larive Group, Eastern Europe has been a key geography of interest to our clients. Larive International has been present in Eastern Europe from as early as 1990, with local partners in Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Georgia, Czech Republic, Croatia and Ukraine.
Our journey in Eastern Europe started in Ukraine in 1993, where the Larive group has supported clients with business intelligence, market entry and growth strategies. Promising sectors were, and still are, agro-food, energy and water. Our partner Vlad Kadlubytskyy will go into more detail on the latter this week, presenting interesting recent developments regarding the inland waterways of Ukraine.
In 1994, a year later, Larive Romania was established. Larive Romania is managed by Daniel Ionescu. Ever since, we have supported clients with post-entry services, public/private partnerships and attracting grants and finance to support entry to the Romanian market. This week Daniel shows more insights on a successful cooperation between Aerostar and Stork Fokker AESP.
In 1995, Larive Slovakia joined the Group. We thus celebrate our 25 years of partnership this year! At the head of Larive Slovakia is Janka Kleinertova, and with an economic engineering background, she has successfully assisted our clients to enter the Slovak market and will present the modern opportunities Slovakia has to offer the world.
The Czech Republic is served through our office in Slovakia. Emile Roest leads the Team that assists clients to set up shop and gain a foothold in the Slovak market. Since 1995, Emile has helped many Dutch companies in their investments in the opportunities brought forward because of the transition from a state-run economy to a free market economy. Moreover, there were many European projects aimed at developing Czechia and to seek out opportunities. As such, it was not only companies that shifted towards the East, but governments as well. To facilitate the shift to a free market economy, law and legislation also had to be created, government officials had to be trained and much, much more. Emile will go into more detail this week on how the Czechia has stepped out of the shadows and is now a maturing economy providing stable opportunities.
In recent years, the Eastern European markets have matured. However, there are still many undiscovered opportunities and doing business in this region has its advantages. With the recent flight restrictions, global trade wars and other risks, knowing your neighbours can certainly be of benefits. With transport improving, big cities rapidly developing and trained personnel, conditions have never been better in Eastern Europe to set up shop.
