500m-euro wood industry investment in Suceava

Austria-based Egger Osteuropa Beteilinungs, one of the main players on the European market for wooden materials yesterday announced it would make half a billion-euro investments in the wood processing industry in Romania. “We chose Romania because of the very good raw materials it has, because of the high demand for furniture on the domestic market and because of the customers we already have in Romania,” stated Michael Egger, chief executive officer of the Austrian group. The investment will be carried out in several stages, with the first of them being the construction of a particleboard factory in Suceava County. The production facility will require investments totalling 210 million euros, with 60% of the funding set to come from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The two parties signed the co-operation agreement in Bucharest yesterday, under which the EBRD will come up with 120 million euros. “The 120 million euros the bank will contribute to the Suceava project represent an important amount invested in a strategic sector of Romania, which we hope will attract other foreign investors as well. Romania benefits from very good raw material and should make the most of it,” Hildegard Gacek, an EBRD director said. ZF