Swiss FDI to Romania at EUR 1.1 bln, says embassy

Foreign direct investments to Romania from Swiss companies amounted to EUR 1.1 billion last year, putting the country around seventh position among foreign investors in Romania countries of origin, according to a recently released report by the Swiss Embassy to Bucharest. The embassy evaluated data from Swiss companies active locally, as well as data from the Romanian Trade Registry (ONRC).

The single most important Swiss investor in Romania is Holcim, which makes up about half of the overall Swiss investment in the country. Other top investors from the Western European state are Expur, Intercontinental, Nestle, Novartis, Ringier, Roche, Swisspor, Rieker, TopBrands and the companies of investor Jean Valvis. Further well-known Swiss investments include Angst, Carpatair, Franke, Heidi Chocolates, Helvetica Profarm, Inter-Spitzen and Sefar.

According to Swiss investors, the current overall investment climate for foreign companies in Romania ranks between poor and satisfactory, closer to satisfactory. Legal stability and transparency, transparent and efficient bureaucracy and the potential of the internal market are, generally speaking, the three most important factors driving investments, according to the report. The top three barriers to investment for Swiss companies in Romania are the lack of bureaucratic transparency and efficiency, poor governmental budgetary discipline and inconsistent government economic policies.

In 2010, Switzerland will start its first projects within the Swiss EU Enlargement Contribution to Romania. The contribution has a financial volume of approximately EUR 120 million. Economically, Switzerland will consolidate its position as one of the top ten investors in Romania, and bilateral trade should pick up after a rather difficult 2009, according to Livio Hurzeler, the Swiss ambassador to Bucharest.

Corina Saceanu

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