Following the visit of a delegation from Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann , the maker of the Leopard tanks, to Bucharest earlier this year, this week the representatives of aircraft manufacturer Airbus Helicopters arrived in Bucharest, with plans to start building a Super Puma Mk1 helicopter plant in October.
“Some have already bought land,” Encutescu says. Investments should be “in the range of billions of euros” in two or three years, and the authorities think these investments will create 15,000 jobs in the aerospace sector alone, he added.
Romania makes components, subassemblies, landing gear and electronic cockpit components for Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier. Why is Romania focusing on the aerospace industry? Because it wants its slice of the pie, considering the need for aircraft is estimated at 32,600 units by 2034, the state secretary says.
“Most opportunities on the market right now are coming from the aerospace industry, the non-defense component included,” Encutescu says.
The reason for his statement is that no fewer than six aerospace component and subcomponent subcontractors will relocate to Romania. More precisely, some companies plan on opening new plants, such as Airbus, while others intend to relocate plants to Romania from other continents or expand their production facilities.
Authorities in Romania have discussed on various occasions plans to develop certain sectors over the last few years, but many of them did not make it past the project stage. Energy is such a sector, always seen as one that could turn Romania into a regional hub, but authorities’ procrastination caused investors to go away, as they did with the reactors 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant or the thermoelectric power plant construction plans.
Romania is now playing a different card, the defense industry card or, to be precise, the military and non-military aerospace industry card, where things seem to be moving faster. Encutescu believes that ‘in a short time’ Romania can be a hub of the European aerospace industry. One competitive edge is that only 11 European countries have capabilities in this sector and Romania is one of them. Another is that there are only five airplane manufacturers in the entire world.
“We expect these investments to bring back Romanian engineers working in other countries. Some do want to come back even today, but we are unable to hire them because salaries are six to seven times lower than in the West, and companies in Romania are undergoing restructuring and reorganization,” Encutescu said.
Besides the interest of international aerospace companies in Romania, the state secretary says the government in Bucharest intends to revive the entire national defense industry and this intention has already been put into a national security strategy approved by the country’s Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) and by the government.
Encutescu says the main concern of the authorities is to identify and attract industrial partnerships to ensure transfer of know-how and technology needed for making new military equipment required by Romania’s military.
“This partnership can apply without us being restrictive but in line with the new legislative framework that will be promoted. The vision of the current investors is no longer to buy assets. They want a business that can ensure production and a suitable profit rate. We are not creating the perception that we’re selling the land and assets of the country here.”
What exactly does Romania want for its defense industry? It wants it to make powder and explosives, infantry weapons and munitions, to establish national maintenance centers for all types of military platforms and weapons and to develop the IT-C and command control sectors. It also intends to keep the tank and armored vehicle assembly lines, and the aerospace industry facilities going.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)