The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) is a permanent partner of the Romanian Government in finding the most effective solutions and measures to attract foreign direct investments (FDI).

Attracting new FDI and also stimulating the investments already present in Romania, is a solution to stabilize and constantly increase the economy. Attracting and maintaining investments does not require significant financial resources from the public sector, hence avoiding becoming a burden for the budget. In addition, the economic activity arising from these investments will generate additional revenues to the budget in the future. FDI’s contribution to Romania’s economy has multiple ramifications: besides the direct impact evidenced by gross value added or the number of employees, there are other effects, such as the impact of know-how and technology transfer on productivity.

During the FIC launching event of the 2022 edition of the Va Urma project, business leaders together with the Prime Minister of Romania, Mr. Nicolae Ciuca, members of the Government and Parliament and of international institutions, agreed on a number of national directions for economic and social development of the country. Key measures include defining a long-term strategy to attract foreign investors to Romania with a focus on high added value and competitive advantage sectors (human capital, natural resources) and promotion of foreign investments in Romania and domestic investments abroad by establishing an institutional mechanism under the coordination of the Prime Minister.

FIC welcomes the adoption and publication in the Official Gazette of the normative act that establishes the Romanian Agency for Investments and Foreign Trade under the Government and the coordination of the Prime Minister. This represents a first step in aligning Romania to the good European practices for attracting foreign investments by creating a dedicated body for promoting investments (“one-stop shop”) whose main objective is to encourage investments in Romania through companies with foreign capital and to stimulate trade.

Such an institution responsible for promoting and attracting FDI can offer various advantages: attracting foreign companies, strengthening upstream links between transnational companies and local firms, encouraging companies to develop subsidiaries and bring segments of the higher value-added production chain to the host country, strengthening the link between industry and universities, developing domestic human capital, using FDI to promote decentralized economic growth or generating sectoral industrial clusters. It is important that this entity acts as a partner engaging with potential investors and existing ones in order to help them establish or expand their operations and to ensure a more intense presence of Romania on international markets.

FIC welcomes the measures taken by the Romanian Government to improve the administrative framework dedicated to foreign investments and is ready to contribute through the expertise and knowledge of its members to shaping a medium and long-term strategy of attracting and supporting investments in key areas to amplify the economic evolution.