CGMA designation holders empowering Romania’s economy
As Romania continues to experience economic growth, the need for skilled finance professionals and business leaders who can navigate this dynamic environment becomes increasingly important. This is where Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA designation holders), with their unique competencies and skills, come in, says Jakub Bejnarowicz – Regional Director for Europe at AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.
Nine O’Clock: Can we start with looking at the economic growth in Romania? What do you think are the contributing factors?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: I recently came across an interesting analysis by Csaba Balint, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), who examined how Romania’s economy has evolved over the last 160 years. He discovered a surprising evolution, culminating in remarkable performance in recent years. Romania’s level of development fluctuated between 20% and 40% of the Western European average for about 140 years, maintaining an average of about 30%. However, in the last two to three decades, Romania has recorded accelerated economic growth, which can be considered an “economic miracle,” propelling Romanians towards a unique level of well-being in their entire history, with increased access to goods and services.
A convergence as rapid as that experienced by Romania, and the wider Central and Eastern European region, in the last 25 years is rare. In Romania, the GDP per capita, in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) compared to the EU average, increased spectacularly from approximately 25% to almost 80% during this period. Although regional disparities still persist, overall progress is undeniable.
Nowadays, Romania has a high-income, mixed economy with a very high Human Development Index and a skilled labour force. The country ranks 10th in the European Union by total nominal GDP and 7th largest when adjusted by PPP. Romania has grown into a major centre for mobile technology, information security, and related hardware research, it’s also a regional leader in fields such as IT and motor vehicle production. Bucharest is one of the leading financial and industrial centres in Eastern Europe.
As Romania continues to experience remarkable economic growth, the need for skilled finance professionals and business leaders who can navigate this dynamic environment becomes increasingly important. This is where Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA designation holders) come in. Studying with The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) equips them with a unique set of finance, accounting, business and leadership competencies and skills, setting them apart from the rest. This is because the CGMA Professional Qualification is both extremely relevant to the growing Romanian economy and very timely, considering its focus on value creation, sustainability, technology and data, which are gaining momentum in Romania and across the world.
Nine O’Clock: What unique competencies and skills do CGMA designation holders bring to the table that are particularly beneficial in today’s rapidly changing business environment?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: For more than a century, we have been empowering the world’s most highly skilled accounting, business, and finance professionals, as well as their organisations and diverse economies, to thrive.
The CGMA Professional Qualification and CGMA designation demonstrate to employers anywhere in the world the unique abilities of management accountants to understand business, their commercial acumen, and their expertise as business partners and value creators. Our professional qualification teaches CGMA candidates the skills and competencies they need to guide critical business decisions, drive strong business performance, and lead transformation.
In Europe and across the world, CGMA designation holders have gained a reputation for their visionary leadership in supporting their organisations to withstand the test of time. Or put it simply, that that they have got what it takes to help their organisations succeed.
Nine O’Clock: Why is a holistic approach to creating value and driving business performance essential for modern enterprises? And how do CGMA designation holders use their skills to influence strategic decision-making and drive growth?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: Nowadays, organisations need a holistic approach to creating value and driving their business performance – tracking and making sense of the past, understanding the present and modelling the future to make good decisions, manage risks and create sustainable business models. This is all while optimising resources and performance along the way.
To get this done, today’s enterprises need people who use and leverage the powerful combination of finance and business. They need financially literate, digitally and commercially savvy, ethical and purpose-driven leaders who can influence their peers through strategic insight, driving growth and creating value. Leaders who manage tasks and projects as well as teams and organisations. Experts who apply their accounting and finance skills across the organisation. Professionals who are capable of using financial and nonfinancial data to drive integrated thinking and better decision-making.
This is the DNA of CGMA designation holders. They are data-driven business problem-solvers and architects of value. They embody confidence and expertise because their knowledge and skills are based on mastering the comprehensive, employer- and practice-based CGMA syllabus. Because of this, CGMA designation holders work as strategic partners across the business and finance teams, providing the decision-based financial and operational data required to make good decisions, manage — then optimise — the performance of an organisation, create value for the future and drive it forward.
Nine O’Clock: In a broader sense, how do management accountants assess risks and opportunities for investment and growth, including considerations of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)? And how do they ensure compliance and transparency in business practices and financial reporting?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: Good management accountants are problem-solvers, not just identifiers. They understand their organisation from all perspectives because they learn every aspect of a business, not just the accounting and finance side. Their competencies include analytical thinking, strategic planning, risk management, cost control, communication skills, technical skills, ethics, a hunger for learning and a digital mindset.
As a result, management accountants have matured to become value creators and strategic advisors. They lead business operations and drive performance, looking beyond cost management to assess risks and opportunities for investment and growth. This thinking and analysis expertise includes the consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG).
Today, management accountants and finance teams play a role as architects of the future for their organisations, assimilating critical information to guide decision makers, based on a robust understanding of financial and non-financial data and scenarios, both good and bad.
With such a leading role comes responsibility and accountability. The bedrock of the accounting and finance profession is trust and the profession plays a critical role in supporting relationships between businesses and the communities they serve. Alongside a focus on creating value, management accountants also ensure that their employers remain legally compliant and operate to high standards through strong internal systems and controls.
With the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation, coupled with civic mistrust, corporate governance and ethics are vital for businesses to function effectively. To support best practices, CIMA members are bound by a code of ethics and strive to ensure that business practices and financial reporting are compliant and transparent. There’s no better team than the finance function to help prevent corruption.
Nine O’Clock: How can strategic management help Romania maximise resources and achieve sustainable economic growth? And what are some key strategies that businesses and public services in Romania can adopt to navigate economic challenges and promote long-term value generation?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: Strategy is not about thinking about where we are today, but how we are going to successfully get where we want to be tomorrow. With strategic management, we can maximise resources that can bring us the right returns on investment to reduce debts, grow our economy, and increase wealth.
This requires those in business and public services to:
- Optimally use resources to increase productivity and manage costs
- Make informed choices and data-driven decisions
- Encourage long-term value generation
- Identify and navigate risks and uncertainties
- Seek investment opportunities to drive sustainable growth
- Promote trust and confidence through transparency, ethics, and accuracy.
By adopting this kind of mindset, Romania can navigate any economic challenges and pave the way for a prosperous future.
Nine O’Clock: What steps should finance professionals take to adapt to digital transformation and ensure they remain relevant in the future?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and machine learning are increasing the profession’s efficiency, enabling it to drive more value and have more purposeful jobs. If business leaders and finance professionals seize the opportunity to adapt and upskill, they can dedicate their time to activities that drive performance, deliver value, and bring new strategic insights to the top decision-making process. Continued innovation is what ensures not only the long-term resilience of the organisations they serve but also Romania’s economy.
The flip side of these opportunities is that those who do not adapt to digital transformation risk being left behind. Accounting and finance professionals must have a mindset to learn, unlearn and relearn. The profession too needs to work even harder to develop top talent and to equip themselves with an innovative and life-long-learning spirit and drive to leverage technology to improve the work that they do. Whilst this may feel overwhelming to some, I am very excited about the opportunities for the profession to accelerate and lead ourselves and our organisations in the future.
Nine O’Clock: You have already established a number of partnerships in Romania by AICPA & CIMA, including Memorandums of Understanding with CECCAR and CAFR. Outside of these agreements, how can aspiring finance professionals access the CGMA Professional Qualification and AICPA & CIMA resources to enhance their careers?
Jakub Bejnarowicz: In Romania, AICPA & CIMA offer numerous tailored options for acquiring the CGMA designation, as well as AICPA & CIMA certificates through the partnerships we have established over the past couple of years. In addition to the MoUs you mentioned, we collaborate with BPP Romania, which serves as our Registered Training Provider, and with PwC Romania on research and training.
Furthermore, the Academy of Economic Studies offers its students access to CGMA Professional Qualification, while Babes-Bolyai University provides access to the CGMA Finance Leadership Program, our digital-first route to earning the CGMA designation, under privileged conditions. This world-class online tool meets the accelerating demand for remote digital self-paced learning and helps to raise the digital competencies of financial professionals, something which has become critical in the past decade.
To touch on the part of your question about leveraging these opportunities to enhance people’s careers, let me quote one of our members, who is the Senior Leader in Technology Management – Reporting & Planning Systems at Deutsche Telekom Services Europe Romania. According to him, the CGMA Professional Qualification is more than a financial qualification and letters after your name, the qualification is about developing the knowledge and confidence to pursue your professional ambitions, and equipping you with the technical, business, people, leadership, and digital skills needed to navigate current complex business environment.
Nine O’Clock: Thank you for these answers and for taking the time to participate to this interview!
11.05.2025
Andreea Drăgan joined Nine O’Clock in April 2023. She graduated the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Science in 2023 and holds a degree in communications sciences. She obtained the Cambridge Assessment English: First Certificate in English (FCE) diploma in December 2018 with a B2 Level. In August she was promoted to Editor of Nine O’Clock Newspaper after many interviews and articles written by her. Andreea Drăgan has been nominated for the prestigious Journalist of the Year 2024 award in the Capital Market category, organized by the Bucharest Stock Exchange / Bursa de Valori Bucuresti (BVB). Get in touch with her: [email protected]
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