NBR: Record foreign investments in 2005

The volume of foreign investments attracted to Romania last year stood at 5.2 billion euros, according to provisional data from the National Bank, with this being the highest level ever seen in official statistics. Compared to 2004, the amounts invested last year were 26.8% higher, if relating to the provisional data back then, and 0.3% higher than the final data for 2004 “This is an fantastic result and, if we think of how things evolved last year, we can say that the final data will show over 6 billion euros in 2005,” Ana-Maria Cristina, chairperson of the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments (ARIS) told ZF. She added that what was important was that no significant privatisation process was completed last year, and therefore most investments were aimed at greenfield plants. “The year 2005 did not see significant investments in privatisations, since the state will not get the 2.2 billion euros from Erste Bank”s takeover of the BCR until this year, although the deal was completed at the end of last year,” Aris chairperson added. ZF