20. 09. 10. - 14:00

Austria found top investor in Romania

Austria is the biggest foreign investor in Romania, it has emerged.

Rudolf Lukavsky, commercial counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in Bucharest, said today (Mon) the 500 million Euros Austrian firms spent in Romania last year represented 20 per cent of total foreign investments

Lukavsky also said he expected Austrian investments in the Eastern European (EE) country, which joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, to rise between 10 and 15 per cent "over the next few years".

There are around 5,800 firms with Austrian capital at the moment in the debt-ridden country, according to the Romanian Times.

The main Austrian investors in Romania are mineral oil firm OMV, Erste Bank, Raiffeisenzentralbank’s (RZB) subsidy Raiffeisen International (RI) bank and Vienna Insurance Group (VIG).

Recent figures showed overall foreign direct investments (FDI) in Romania dropped by 36 per cent to 1.9 billion Euros in the first seven months of this year. FDI amounted to 2.9 billion Euros in the same period of 2009.

Meanwhile, Nikolaus Seiwald announced the value of Austrian exports to the Czech Republic had reached pre-crisis figures.

The Austrian Economy Chamber’s (WKO) trade commissioner in Prague said last week Austrian exports to the neighbouring country had improved by 17.3 per cent to 1.909 billion Euros year on year in the first six months of 2010.

Seiwald explained these figures meant exports from Austrian firms to the country, a member of the EU since 2004, were back to value levels before the global financial crisis.

He also said Austrian firms retained third place for investments in the Czech Republic in the first half of this year behind the Netherlands and Germany by spending 11.3 billion Euros.

The country is Austria’s most important export destination in EE and the fifth-biggest trade partner in the world.

Austrian firms exported goods worth 94.2 billion Euros across the world last year, down from 117.5 billion Euros in the previous year. The amount of exports has increased steadily since Austria joined the EU in 1995.