Manuel Costescu, on how Romania can attract foreign investments

Manuel Costescu, the state secretary at InvestRomania, says that are several dimensions that we need to bear in mind when promoting Romania.

Business Review had asked him what can the country do to attract foreign investments in the next years.

“Existing vs. new investors: The former, when listened to and supported properly can be the best ambassadors of the country and its strategic assets. It is important that we have an active dialogue with these investors whose investments in Romania represent USD 70 billion and account for a large proportion of employment, economic growth, and know-how. The strategy for new investors needs to be tailored to the investment stage they are in, which reaches from helping them become more familiar with Romania to helping them with the very tactical logistics of a greenfield investment.

Reactive vs. proactive investor outreach: Reactively, so when an investor calls on InvestRomania, we have an open door policy. We are here to help investors interested in investing in Romania and we do not discriminate against any investors, as long as their business is legit. It is very hard to know up-front how successful an investor will be and how much value they will add to the economy. It is our responsibility to give investors all the information they require to make a decision. This is information around capabilities of the workforce, availability and process of state aid, logistics, connections, and schools in the area of interest, etc.

Proactively, so when we go into a country looking to generate interest in Romania, our strategy is focused around 6 industries: IT, automotive, aerospace, bio-industries, creative industries and agriculture. For each one of these industries, we have developed, in partnership with the relevant stakeholders, as accurate of an image of Romania’s competitive advantages. In addition, we have dedicated a month to each one of these priority sectors to be able to learn prima facie what Romania’s capabilities are. For example, in May, we participated or initiated 9 events around IT. Through these events, our team learned a tremendous amount, strengthened Romania’s IT story significantly, and are much more credible in promoting this sector to potential investors. We now have, for example, and excellent overview of the academic, business, innovative, logistic, and lifestyle attributes of the main IT centers in Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj.

Partnerships: Romania is being promoted through 100 channels every day across industries, at regional level, through industry groups, fairs, etc. InvestRomania’s role is to be a facilitator of these channels and work in close partnerships with as many of them. BusinessReview itself is one such venues, which we appreciate very much. When it comes to promoting Romania, all of us, from the Chambers of Commerce, Industrial Parks, Industrial Agencies, Local Authorities, the Press, we are all interested in one thing: to close the gap between Romania’s perception and the much better reality. It is important in the context of the strategy to attract foreign investors to continuously strengthen these partnerships and educate by example that we are all in it together.

Communication: It is critical that we use every channel effectively to promote Romania in order to increase the size of investment. Romania’s image lags behind its reality in Romania and abroad. It is therefore important to encourage reality to come to light. I am very privileged to work with people of great integrity as part of the technocrat Government and we jointly try to tell the story of Romania that we are so proud of. At Investromania specifically, we make sure that we tell a consistent message which is well harmonized with the business sector and the other areas of the administration. We try to do this in the local and international press, at conferences and events, with the diaspora, etc. I view this as a critical tool for the attraction of foreign investment to Romania.

Money follows knowledge: Linked to the above, we see it as our responsibility at InvestRomania to actively and rapidly contribute to the promotion of the many stories of Romania: the IT story, the car manufacturing story, the story of the research centers in Iasi, the story of the universities in Timisoara. All these stories together form the story of Romania. Through our events and visits, we ensure that local businesses, associations, universities forge trusted relationships with other institutions in Romania or abroad. Once an investor is familiar with a country, then he can decide to invest. For that to happen they needs to learn about the country across a variety of ways. It is our role to facilitate that transfer of knowledge and of facilitating trust building activities”, Costescu told BR.

Business Review has published this week an exclusive interview with the government official in the print magazine. The online version will be available tomorrow.