Nani Beccalli, president and CEO of General Electric (GE) Europe last week said the U.S.-based group was planning to increase investment in Romania and that it supported Romania’s accession to the European Union.
“GE is planning to invest more in Eastern Europe, both in Hungary (that will join the European Union) and in Romania, Russia and Turkey,” Beccalli was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. However, Beccalli would not disclose the exact value of the projected investments. The GE official also stated that Romania and Bulgaria needed encouragement and support to be able to prepare for EU integration.
General Electric is, together with European companies such as Alstom and Siemens, one of the potential indirect beneficiaries of the EU funds aimed at upgrading the infrastructure in Romania and Bulgaria. GE is the world’s biggest maker of turbines for power plants and locomotives, aircraft engines and among the leading producers of medical equipment and plastic materials. These sectors are poised for growth in Romania, due to the European funds and the programmes endorsed by the Romanian State (worth billions of dollars) destined to support infrastructure modernisation.
“We expect to sell more equipment for the aeronautics, transports and health industry in order to modernise these countries,” Beccalli said.
Beccalli became the head of General Electric’s European operations in 2002 and has visited Romania twice since then (GE’s Balkan operations are run from Romania). The General Electric official has said before that the American group is seeking to boost presence in Romania, both as an investor and as a supplier or contractor. Although it has invested more than one billion dollars in Central and Eastern Europe so far, the American giant has made very significant investments in Romania. laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro