Romania still lagging despite record FDI

The authorities on Tuesday announced a record foreign direct investment (FDI) level for this year estimated to more than 3.4bn euros. They admitted, however, that Romania was still lagging behind the countries in the region considering its FDI per capita of only $200 (181 euros). “Even though we’ll attain a foreign investment inflow of $200 per capita, twice higher than the $100 attracted in the past few years, we are still far from the economic impact attracting foreign capital has in other countries in the CEE region against which we have to compare from now on. For instance, Croatia attracted $444 (393 euros) per capita in 2003, Czech Republic – $254 (225 euros), Estonia – $665 (588 euros) and Hungary – $248 (219 euros),” the representatives of the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments (ARIS) say. They announced on Tuesday that the National Bank of Romania had recorded 1.8bn euro FDI in the first ten months of the year, up 45.3% from the same time in 2003. Now that the money from Petrom’s privatisation (1.5bn euros) have come in this month, ARIS announces foreign investment in 2004 stands at more than 3.4bn euros, the highest level between 1990-2004. ZF