Blogs

We found in the national strategy that Romania shall invest 6 to 8 billion Euiro in sustainable energy.

Examples are wind energy and solar energy. There are some plans ready for execution (windmill park of 250MW). 

The Romanian FRE fund provides commercial financing for energy projetcs. There are many venture capital providers and investors that are looking at the energy sector.

The European Investment Bank EIB, has approved a loan of EUR 83 million, for the development
of the Renault Techonologie Roumanie, RTR, center in Titu, southern Romania, where tested and
designed will be the next Dacia models, daily Ziarul Financiar writes. The project supposes both
projects in the infrastructure and testing equipment. In the new technological center, set up will
be 600 jobs and indirectly 3,000 more. In H1 this year, the building works in Titu were stopped for

Businessman Lutz Stache, who sold the Simcor Oradea group in an over 50 million-euro deal last year and who has a regional business worth more than 700 million euros and employing 10,000 people in the constructions industry, says that Simcor is one of his most profitable businesses ever, and that results in Romania were higher than planned.

GED private equity firm acquired 60% in Total Eurobusiness company, with operations on the segment of energy cogeneration projects, through a 6m-euro capital increase. GED's total investments in the company will reach 12m euros in the following years. "The energy sector has a high development potential, supported on one hand by European funds, and also by the high number of projects in the public and private fields," Anca Ionescu, manager of GED's Romanian office, told ZF.

Source: zf - 27 August 2009

The European Commission invited Romania on June 24 to get assured that the process of
correlation of the excessive deficit will take place until 2011, read the recommendations made by
the community Executive after the initiation on May 13 of the procedures in the case of the
excessive deficit. The Romanian authorities have, for 2009 a target of budget deficit worth 5.1%
of the Gross Domestic Product, with the intention of cutting the deficit under the threshold of

Things have changed radically in Central and Eastern Europe compared with 2008, with bankers now being concerned about the worsening of loan quality and seeking to find cheaper sources of funding, reveals a Raiffeisen Bank report. "On a regional level, we see individual efforts made by players to find the appropriate strategies to counter the rapid deterioration of asset quality and the rise in the cost of funding.

Companies will have to pay an annual minimum tax of 2,200 lei (some 500 euros) in Romania, starting May 1, if they have total annual revenues worth below 52,000 lei and a minimum tax of 43,000 lei (some 10,000 euros) if their total annual revenues exceed 129 million lei, according to a normative act referring to the 2009 budget rectification and the regulation of severeal fiscal-financiar measures.

The European Commission has authorized the state aid scheme worked out for SMEs in Romania,
with the total value of the aid to be provided being worth EUR 30 million, according to the
Competition Council.

The first project in Prahova County in the energy field, getting European financing for the
construction of a photo-voltaic three Megawatts station is the one in Cornu commune. President of
the County Council Mircea Cosma stated on the occasion of a the first meeting of the Agency for
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Ploiesti-Prahova that the European financing is in the
value of EUR 16 million and the tender will be organized in August for the construction of this

A number of 1,153 projects worth RON 11.8 billion were submitted starting December 22, 2008
through April 30, 2009, announced on May 5 the Government's spokesperson Ioana Muntean at

the end of the meeting of the Inter-ministerial committee for the management of the EU funds'
absorption. She mentioned that 159 projects, in the value of RON 3.7 billion, were approved
during this interval and 554 projects were contracted, worth in excess of RON 3 billion. As well,

Lista viitorilor europarlamentari romani

Europarlamentari PDL: 10 mandate
1. Theodor Stolojan
2. Monica Macovei
3. Traian Ungureanu
4.Cristian Preda
5. Marian Jean Marinescu
6. Iosif Matula
7. Sebastian Bodu
8. Petru Luhan
9. Rareş Niculescu
10. Elena Antonescu

Europarlamentari PSD: 10 mandate
1. Adrian Severin
2. Rovana Plumb
3. Ioan Mircea Paşcu
4. Adriana Ţicău
5. Daciana Sârbu

Romanian Prime Minister declared on Tuesday that the Government has limited the negative effects of the economic crisis and has fulfilled its social obligation. The statement was made during an economic seminar organised by Business Standard, where several other economic measures were exposed.

Applicant guidelines for financial support under Axis 1, DMI 1.1. "Productive investments and prepare for competition on the market enterprises, especially SMEs" will be officially launched on 6 May 2009 at Fair for SMEs in 2009, and over approximately one month from the launch will be possible to deposit effective projects , said on Tuesday, 28 April 2009, Laura Marusca, Deputy General Director in the Directorate General for SMEs in the conference in MIMMCPL

Source: Mediafax

The first two months of this year confirmed that none of the scenarios regarding Romania starting from the premise that foreign direct investment would collapse and money transfers from Romanians working abroad would stop will materialise, states Andreas Treichl, CEO with Erste Group, the majority shareholder in BCR.

The first 16 contracts granting non-repayable structural funds of more than RON 3.2 million to
micro-enterprises located in central Romania were sealed on March 18 at the Regional
Development Agency (ADR) - Center in Alba Iulia.

The European Commission (EC) on February 9 announced that it would invest EUR 105 billion in the “green economy”, as part of the cohesion policy of the European Union over 2007-2013, of which EUR 8.633 billion will be allotted to Romania. Romania and Bulgaria invest the highest ratio of the funds due to the cohesion policy in environment-related projects, with 45%, respectively 42% of earmarked funds.

European Central bank decreased on Thursday, the reference rate to a new record rate, of 1.25%. Analysts estimated a decrease by up to 1% as they expect an economic decrease in the euro zone and a signficant drop of the inflation.

This is the sixth decrease from October 2008 when the reference rate was 4.25%. International experts declared that due to a smaller inflation, the Bank is compelled to reduce the key interest rate to balance a deflation risk. The euro zone inflation decreased to half in March up to 0.6% according to preliminary data.

Non-performing loans are on the rise, as was to be expected, but they are not close to being critical for the BCR, says Dominic Bruynseels, CEO of the largest bank on the market. "However, we have to deal with this problem and help out customers, potentially with loan restructuring. We hav   e around 5,000 retail clients with problems, which I think is a very small number. The depreciation of the RON affected those with mortgage credits, mostly, and we are trying to reduce their instalments," says Bruynseels.

The economic losses caused by the international financial  crisis will not be recovered earlier than 2-3 years, said the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on Friday. According to the IMF official, the economy may return to a positive growth in the first semester on 2010, in case good policies are applied and the banking system is "cleansed".

The toxic assets held by banks are above 2,200 - 2,300 billion dollars, Strauss-Kahn said, repeating the same estimations made in January.

“So the owner of the land will receive money when he understands that the real value  is 30%-40%  smaller than last year, but the amount received will allow him to buy another property, or to make other investments, alos  30% cheaper, the market has chance of restarting….. “

“Romania and Belgium have a solid basis of experience and trust in order to face together the upcoming year 2009. The current international economic crisis is profound, and affects both our countries. Job creation is going to be the major challenge, and for that we have to avoid protectionism, because that is not a “solution”.�

For the first time, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School breaks into the top 10 of the Financial Times European Business School ranking. Our excellent score in this authoritative listing confirms our position as a top-level European management school. In comparison to last year’s ranking the School climbs 6 places. This steep rise is mainly thanks to the entry of our MBA programme in the 2008 global ranking.