Airline company Carpatair has flown in 200 foreign tourists who spent their Halloween in Transylvania, the firm has announced. The German and Italian tourists bought tickets as part of Carpatair's promotional sale. Foreigners visited mainly the Bran and Sighisoara areas.

Iñaki Berroeta (in picture) is the new CEO of telecom company Vodafone in Romania, replacing Liliana Solomon from the beginning of December this year, the company has announced. Inaki Berroeta joins Vodafone Romania from the helm of the subsidiary in Malta, where he has been GM for three years.

Romania and the International Monetary Fund have reached an agreement at the experts' level and the results of the discussions were good, according to Jeffrey Franks, head of the IMF mission to Romania (in picture, right). The fund expects to ask for the IMF's board approval mid-January, to unlock a new loan tranche for Romania – around EUR 900 million.

With its EU accession in 2007, Romania has gained access to much needed financing alternatives in agriculture; the main sources of funding are the direct payments and those through the National Program for Rural Development. The proper use of the financing for the farming sector could trigger a more competitive Romanian agriculture, the increase in the number of jobs in rural areas, as well as the sustainable development of rural areas. Romania-Insider.com looks at the main features of the EU funds for agriculture, an area which could become one of the country's competitive advantages if properly taken care of, as well as at several foreign investments in Romanian agriculture.

BRD-Groupe Societe Generale posted a profit of EUR 113 million in the first nine months of the year, down 28 percent on the level registered at the end of September last year, according to the bank. Its banking revenues were of EUR 634 million, up 5 percent.

The Bucharest state-owned metro company Metrorex transported almost 90 million passengers in the first half of the year, according to data from the Transport Ministry. Last year, 170 million passengers used the Metrorex network, and in 2008, 182 million.

Romania currently has the most unsustainable public pensions system among all the emerging economies in the EU, according to a report issued by international rating agency Standard&Poor’s. The Romanian public pensions system will see an increase in pension expenses by 6.4 percentage points of the GDP in the following decades, from a current 8.4 percent of the GDP, to 14.8 percent of the GDP in 2050.

*BCR Group, controlled by Erste, makes RON 6 million profit in third quarter – in Ziarul Financiar
*The stake of the ordinance becomes the stake of the IMF agreement – in Ziarul Financiar
*Americans from Plexus give up on plans to enter China and open a factory in Oradea – in Ziarul Financiar
*Tg Mures airport seeks EUR 40 mln EU financing – in Ziarul Financiar
*Loss in the banking system reaches RON 474 million in the first nine months – in Gandul

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The negotiations between Romania and the International Monetary Fund, which currently runs a review mission in the country, may have reached a deadlock mainly because of the condition to change the consumer loans emergency ordinance 50, so the IMF visit to Romania could be extended, according to Mediafax newswire. Suspending the agreement with the IMF is not excluded at this point, according to the newswire which quotes sources familiar with the talks.

Calendar of events between November st and November 4th - business events, conferences, concerts, workshops,

The charitable association Ovidiu Rom has achieved its target of raising money to support 1,200 children in kindergarden at the Halloween Charity Ball organized on Saturday, October 30, at the Palace of the Parliament. The association raised money both from corporate sponsors and from individuals, which varied between EUR 50 and EUR 11,000.