Foreign investors focus on Eastern Romania

Attracted by cheap labour and low land prices, foreign investors will shift their attention towards Romania’s less affluent Eastern region, the secretary general of the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments, Florin Vasilache, said in an interview for Reuters. So far, a big part of foreign direct investment (FDI) was directed at the Bucharest area and at the Western part of the country, as these regions have a more extensive infrastructure network available, facilitating exports to other states within the European Union. Romania, a European Union member since January 1, 2007, has attracted a record volume of FDI in the last few years. FDI hit a record high last year, 9.1 billion euros, after the collection of the 2.2 billion euros from the sale of the biggest Romanian financial institution, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) to the Austrian group Erste Bank.