The very same day–December 20, 2013–the government approved state aid for two IT giants, Microsoft and Dell, which will create 200 and 455 jobs, respectively.
In all, the government signed agreements for EUR30 million with the three companies around Christmas to support investments of EUR72 million (in case of technology companies, the investment is considered equal to salary costs) and creation of 1,155 jobs.
The government grants state aid via three funding schemes, under Government Decision 753/2008, GD1680/2008 and GD797/2012. The third supports use of new technologies and creation of jobs and was used in seven state aid cases last year, where EUR67 million were granted to create more than 3,100 jobs. Three of the seven agreements were signed with the major service and technology companies in December.
Also in December, local entrepreneur Marcel Barbut, owner of construction materials company Adeplast got EUR7 million as state aid to build a EUR20 million plant. He is the only Romanian entrepreneur who got such funding for a greenfield project in 2013.
“I didn’t expect to get the money,” Marcel Barbut told ZF. He had tried to get it before but had been turned down so he applied for it again and finally succeeded.
In all, 15 companies got more than EUR111 million in promised state aid last year to start EUR282 million investments and create 4,300 jobs, according to a document on mbuget.gov.ro. The website is a platform Budget Minister Liviu Voinea wants to use for publishing the latest and most important economic data.
According to the same document, a total of 37 companies got EUR373 million worth of state aid between 2009 and 2013 to encourage them to invest more than EUR1 billion and hire more than 11,000 people. Seven of the 37 projects have already been completed and almost half of the state aid granted went to the automotive sector, a EUR12.5 billion industry employing more than 100,000 in Romania.
Seven companies of the 37 are controlled by Romanian entrepreneurs, including private healthcare provider Polisano (Ilie Vonica), Altius International (Sorin Bonciu), and AdePlast (Marcel Barbut) and got almost EUR36 million state aid in 2009-2013.
The remaining 30 companies are foreign-held and got some EUR340 million for various investments.
The biggest state aid received in the last five years, EUR28 million, went to Lufkin Industries in 2010 and was used for its oil industry equipment plant in Aricestii-Rahtivani, Prahova County (southern Romania).
Most of the aid, EUR220 million, was granted in 2012-2013.
The automotive sector got about half, EUR185 million, of the EUR373 million state aid granted in 2009-2013, to enable it to make more than EUR560 million investments and create over 6,000 jobs.
Component manufacturer Robert Bosch got the highest amount of all automotive companies that applied for state aid, EUR26 million in 2012, and used it to expand the plant in Jucu, near Cluj-Napoca.
Renault-owned Automobile Dacia got state aid twice, once in 2009, more than EUR15 million for a EUR91 million investment in upgrades to Mioveni plant enabling it to start assembling the Duster SUV and once in 2011, when it installed the new assembly lines for the production of its the new Logan and Sandero generation models, which began at the end of 2012. The state aid for the latter project valued at almost EUR20 million was EUR6.7 million.
Germany’s Continental got total aid of EUR16 million, almost EUR12 million of which directed to the tire plant in Timisoara, a EUR25 million investment, in 2013.
The government also approved EUR4.7 million state aid for US-held TRW Airbag Systems, part of the TRW Automotive Holdings, in 2013, to be used for a EUR13.6 million investment in a new airbag plant in Roman, NE Romania. The new plant will employ 400 at first and then hire more up to 1,000 by 2017.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)