Conflicting data on foreign investment

Foreign investment in Romania amounted to 746 million dollars in the first eight months of the year, according to the Chamber of Commerce. However, National Bank data point to only 682 million dollars. In the previous years, these gaps were even wider.
Investments stood at 746 million dollars in the first eight months and are likely to exceed last year’s value ($1.3 billion), said Marian Saniuta, chairman of the Romanian Foreign Investment Agency (ARIS).
The total volume of foreign investment amounted to 8.5 billion dollars between 1991 – August 31, 2002, while the Czech Republic and Poland attracted foreign investment worth $26bn and $38bn, respectively, during the same interval, Saniuta added.
According to the ARIS official, the above-mentioned data were provided by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania and Bucharest. ARIS also works with statistics supplied by the National Bank of Romania (NBR), but the two sets of data do not match.
The biggest gap was logged in 1998, when foreign investment reached $703.8 million, according to the Chamber of Commerce, but the National Bank estimated its level at 2.03 billion dollars. In 2000, the Chamber of Commerce said foreign investment was worth 865.1 million dollars, while the NBR says it stood at $1.3bn.
The ARIS chairman grounds these gaps on the different calculation formulas used by the two institutions. The NBR method is approved by the International Monetary Fund and is applied in all the European countries. “We have met with representatives of the two institutions, but we could not find a common calculation way,” Saniuta said.
Between October 2001, when Law 332 on promoting direct investment with a significant economic impact (over $1m) entered effect, and the end of October 2002, 143 companies submitted projects worth $1.1bn, with 34 projects estimated at $311m having been completed.
“The agency is in talks with several companies, negotiating the terms and conditions for 13 industry investment projects, worth about $1.2 billion,” said Saniuta, without naming the respective companies.