The number of associated companies increased from 980 to 1090 during the Year of Direct Connections, as a result of the new communication technologies introduced in our system. A number of 260 companies were connected to Internet and they got their own site with presentation. They were included in the FIRST TRANSYLVANYAN ELECTRONIC MARKET and the condition for implementing the electronic commerce having been acomplished. The main site used to carry on the virtual activities, the E-CAT site was extended with over 200 interactive pages, "on-line " programs and data basis and other facilities necessary for a quick information, both for our members and for their potential clients, suppliers, investors and partners. The number of visitors on the site http://e-cat.ro was 6620, with a frequency of 18,4 potential partners per day.

Our main objectives regarding decentralization, at the same time with the formation of the conditions necessary for the promotion  of direct  real and virtual relations, namely "one-to-one", "link-to-link" and "business-to-business", have been achieved.

CATraining&Consulting Department organized for CAT  companies 17 missions of assistance given by consultants from NMCP-Netherlands and by 4 experts from SES-Germany. It also organized, together with the Dutch experts, a seminar for the Tourism Guild and many others meetings, held with the help of the experts from the European Union. 40 managers of the Transylvania Guilds took part in seminars of social-economic dialog in Denmark and  3 specialists took part in Internet courses in the USA. At the same time, 4 local development projects were submited  for co-financing to the European Commission, the World Bank ,CIPE -USA and the NV Agency for Development. Over 1800 consulting hours were held both for the associated  companies  and for the potential  partners from Romania and other countries. Promotional seminars for ABB and Internet were organized, as well as for other well known multinational corporations.

The Relations Department intensified  the effort for identifying foreign partners for the CAT companies and organized  39 economic missions abroad, in which 81 companies and 105 businessmen took part. From these missions, 36 were individual and 3 were group missions. They were organized in: USA (66X), Germany  (16X), France (17X), Belgium, Israel, Canada, Netherlands, Spain among the interest fields, there were: civilian buildings, furniture, computers, sport goods, cars and accessories, ready-made clothes, cosmetics, food and gastronomy, investments and  cooperation in production.

As part of Business  Links program, 93 cooperation profiles of the CAT companies were registered in  the European Commission's Data Base. At the same time the 465 BRE representatives were directly informed  about the possible partnerships. CAT-BRE 982 made Internet virtual links, meetings and direct contacts between our companies and foreign firms from: Italy, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Korea, Hong Kong and others.

The Development Department  supported the programs addressed to the Transylvania young people, in which 110 pupils  and 34 students took part. Besides them, there were 4 Canadian college graduates, sent by ACCC-Otawa. The CAT companies supported the young people's practical activity and some of them were offered jobs.  For example, 6 students and 4 pupils were employed by CAT as fellow workers for different programs.

The CAT traditionally supported cultural-artistic events to the benefit of: The Romanian Opera, The National Theatre, The Transilvania Philharmonic Orchestra, The Military Center, The Art Academy, The "Babes Bolyai" University, The Economic High School, "Avram Iancu" High School and other institutions. We continued our co-operation with the local authorities, the Romanian Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of  Foreign Trade, the Romanian Embassies from abroad and those of different countries in Bucharest . We took part in the multilateral meetings organized by the World Bank - GDN'99, the European Commission - IST'99 and Partnership 99, the EBRD and others in Spain, England, Israel, USA and Denmark .

Information, publications and offers/demands were monthly sent to the CAT member companies, both by classic mail and by electronic mail .

The Management Department drew up the Balance Sheet for year 1999 and submitted it to he Board of Management and Auditors Committee . The main figures are :

 A .  Incomes from :  -  economic activities ......................  18,438,000 ROL
                                -     own activities (dues).................... 921,873,000 ROL
                                -     foreign assistance .......................... 87,904,000 ROL
                                -     donations , sponsorships ............. 132,174,000 ROL
                                -      interests, subsidies ........................ 74,652,000 ROL
                                        ______________________________________________
                                       TOTAL                                      1.235,042,000 ROL

B . Expenses with :  -      economic activities............................ 18,958,000 ROL
                               -      own - activities............................. 1.054,067,000 ROL
                                        ______________________________________________
                                    TOTAL                                           1.073,025,000 ROL

C . The difference of 162,017,000 ROL will cover a part of the unfulfilments of the year 1998 (in the sum of 224,776 million ROL, resulted by the delays in the payment of dues and compensations or by the bankruptcy or the pulling out of some members). The remaining sum will be retrieved from the activity of year 2000.

The CAT activity in 1999 registered an increase of 18,2 % compared with year 1998 .

We wish to address the warmest thanks to all our members, to the whole staff and young fellow workers, to the leaders of the guilds, to the resident managers and the members of the independent CATs from the Transylvanian cities for their support and their effort to maintain our organization between the most performant Business Centers in our region, having a large internal and  international  recognition. We wish to say many thanks to our international partners and personalities from the European Commission, World Bank, NMCP, SES and other organizations we co-operate with.

The Activity Report, the Balance Sheet for year 1999 and the Auditors Report can be read by the members, the observers and the guests of  CAT at the Administration Department and they are submitted to the approval of the General Assembly from 30th  May 1999 .

                                                              Dr. Radu -Adrian Mlesnita
                                                                              President

Mat. Mircea Fodoca                                                                                         Economist  Lia Chira - Treasurer
General Manager                                                                                              Ec.  Ramona Czifra - Chief Bookkeeper

Cluj-Napoca 5th May 2000