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Breaking news

15th October 2008

Romania inward investment flow is 60% higher in 2008 compared to 2007. The total investment for the period Jan – Aug 2008 is now more than 6.5 BLN EURO. The data covering Jan –Aug 2008 has been just published by the Romanian Government. At the same time the trade deficit of the country has continued to narrow down being in August 08 50% smaller than for the same period in 2007. Both data reflect the continuous and exceptional progress that Romanian economy is making as fresh UE member and is in stark contract with the evolution of the western state economies. Romania is weathering tremendously well the global credit crunch problem being so far unaffected.

posted in the Romania bussines section

Romania is one of the most attractive countries in EUROPE for business.

10th October 2008

Romania is one of the most attractive countries in EUROPE for business. The biggest 500 multinational European companies have done or have confirmed their intention to open business in Romania.
Romania has one of the lowest business and dividend taxes in Europe at 16%. Also personal capital gains tax (CGT) is only 2%. It is extremely easy to buy a property in Romania and equally to sell it and the Notary taxes are low.
Cited from Cushman and Wakefield, the UK real estate consultancy agency.

posted in the Romania bussines section

Romania is one of the most attractive countries in EUROPE for business.

posted in the Romania bussines section

Romania - an alternative to the credit crunch?

20th August 2008

Despite the turmoil in many Western markets, property in Romania remains a preferred investment for many international blue chip companies. According to Business Standard, the Romanian business daily, the top 9 investments in the first half of 2008 totaled €820 million. Some of the named investors are Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas.

posted in the Romania bussines section

HSBC enters Romanian property market with €70 million Acquisition

14th August 2008

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, finalised the purchase of a 50% share in Expo Market Doraly, a Romanian development company incorporated in 2004. The Romanian company owns and operates a 57,000 built sqm mixed use development (commercial, industrial and office) in Bucharest and 22 hectares of land.
The transaction was executed by HSBC European Infrastructure Investments 1, an investment division of HSBC.

posted in the Romania bussines section

Romania GDP growth outpacing the EU average

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Economic growth in Romania is outpacing the EU average, according to new statistics. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Eurostat, Romania saw its gross domestic product go up by 8.2% during the first three months of 2008. This is more than three times the amount that was recorded across the EU as a whole during the same period! In addition, the figure is also up from 6% in the first quarter of 2007, which was Romania’s first year as an EU member.
According to finance minister Varujan Vosganian, this trend has been driven by growth in the construction and service sectors. The economic boom is the biggest the country experienced since 1990 after the overthrown of the Communist regime. Special note was given to the Building industry where growth rates are 50% y/y. Still demand for new property, especially new houses/villas is phenomenal. A key note was also given to the constructions in the holiday spots such as the Black Sea coast.
This suggests that the growth of tourism and overseas property investment is having a positive impact on the Romanian economy. Property in the eastern European country is currently in high demand. This has led to supply being fairly restricted, which in turn has made available properties much more highly sought-after, thus increasing their prices.
Moreover the Finance Ministry just announced that June indicators show that the annual GDP expansion in Romania will continue above 8% for the rest of the year.

posted in the Romania bussines section

The consortium JV Pizzarotti&Tirena Scavi started on monday the work for the first sector of the Bucharest-Ploiesti highway, announced by the Minister of Transports in press release.

May 28th 2008

According to the contract concluded with the highway's constructor, the works at the Bucharest - Moara Vlasiei segment, with a length of 19 Km, must be finished in november 2010.
The value of this contract is approximately 152.8 millions EURO.
For the construction of the 19 km of highway will be needed 210,000 tons of asphalt and 110,000 cubic metres for making six bridges and seven passages. Also, for this sectionwill be digged 380,000 cubic metres of soil and the backfilling will have a volume of two million cubic metres. This sector, will have on certain areas, three bands on each way.
The Bucharest-Moara Vlasiei Sector is part of the Bucharest-Ploiesti section of the highway which will make the connection between the capital city and Brasov and will have a total length of 168.8 km.
Sectorul Bucuresti-Moara Vlasiei face parte din tronsonul Bucuresti-Ploiesti al autostrazii care va lega Capitala de Brasov si va avea o lungime totala de 168,8 kilometri.

posted in the Romania bussines section

16% increase in Domestic tourism on the Romanian Black sea coast

May 2nd 2008

The Romanian Government published today a report saying that it expects in increase of at least 16% in the number of Romanians who will visit the resorts on the Romanian Black Sea coast this year. The total number can go as high as 10% of Romanian population, namely 2 million people, almost double than in 2007. It mentions that the quality of services has started to improve and there were many investments in the infrastructure and the services being offered in 2008. Romania is keen to reposition its tourist destination on the Black Sea coast and to recover the gap it lost in the last years. As far as 15-20 years ago more than 5-7 million Romanians used to visit the Romanian seaside in summer. Romania announces also the completion of the Bucharest-seaside motorway set for 2009 which will be a major traffic destination for country's visitors on the Romanian Black Sea coast.

Source Finanacial Daily posted in the Romania bussines section

Ford Closes Deal in Romania

April 10th 2008

Ford last month officially took control of Automobile Craiova, the former Daewoo operation here, for a token payment of $80 million and a promise to invest more than $1 billion. Ford executives said the factory will assemble the Transit Connectin 2009 and a new small car in 2010.

Ford plans to boost the plant's annual production capacity to 300,000 units and double employment to 7,000. In 2006, Daewoo built only 24,000 vehicles there.

John Fleming, president and CEO of Ford of Europe, said the Transit Connect, a compact commercial delivery vehicle, will go into production in Craiova in mid-2009. The vehicle currently is built only in Turkey, but Ford's assembly operation there is at full capacity. Earlier this year, Ford announced plans to begin marketing the Transit Connect in the U.S. in summer 2009.

Source "Financial Daily" posted in the Romania bussines section

Two million euro for making Romania a tourism brand

January 17th, 2008

The campaign to put up a tourism brand for Romania saw a 2 million euro budget approved on Wednesday by the Government. Other 9 million euro will be spent on promoting Romania in Spain and Italy, also using state funds. At least four attempts to create such a brand took place in the past few years, proving each time to be completely worthless.

Tourism Ministry state secretary Lucia Morariu claims that Romania has 75 million euro allocated for promoting tourism projects, within the Regional Operational Program, but the state has to pay for the projects first, then the discount from EU funds can be made. According to Morariu, the new branding initiative has nothing to do with the previous attempts: "In case the brand we create is successful, this will also influence the country brand".

"The Eternal and fascinating Romania" project cost 6 million euro, while the "Romania - always surprising" was another 1.7 million dollars. Another project in 2007, Romania - Simply Surprising, was cancelled because it didn't communicate the essence of Romania for any potential visitor.

posted in the Romania bussines section