Romania ranks 12th in the European Top foreign investment by the number of projects started in 2016 and fourth by the number of jobs created by these investments, according to the EY European attractiveness survey 2017.
Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) created 17,545 jobs last year, 38% more than in 2015.
The increase is also significant in terms of foreign direct investment projects (32% over the previous year).
However, we are still very far away from Poland, where 256 FDI projects have been registered, which made the country rank fifth in the EU.
With an almost double number of projects, Poles did not benefit from a similar number of jobs created by FDI, which would have meant around 35,000 jobs, but it registered only 22,074.
It should be noted that Romania and Poland are the best positioned EU member states from the former communist bloc. The Czech Republic and Hungary rank 13th and 14th, respectively.
FDI has reached a record high in Europe last year with 5,845 new projects registered (a 15% increase over the previous year), shows the EY survey. That led to the creation of nearly 260,000 new jobs in total (a 19% increase).
FDI stocks in region – Romania, second to the last position
Foreign investment has sharply increased in Central and Eastern Europe notes the survey so that it has reached almost half of the total number of industrial projects with foreign investment.
The region has become the favourite of the automotive industry, as many companies chose these countries to open new production lines.
The section in Romanian of the barometer includes an analysis of five economies from the region – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
The most attractive economy in terms of FDI stocks was Poland, with a total FDI stock of EUR 192 billion at the end of 2015.
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- Country
- Poland
- Hungary
- The Czech Republic
- Romania
- Bulgaria
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The Czech Republic is the second performer in the region, with a volume of FDI stocks of EUR 101.9 billion, the compound annual growth rate being 11.3% between 1999 and 2015.
The two countries are followed by Hungary (FDI volume of EUR 83.4 billion), Romania (EUR 62.29 billion) and Bulgaria (EUR 37.95 billion).
The annual growth rates between 1999-2015 were the highest in the last two countries:
- 73% in Bulgaria
- 56% in Romania
In 2015, Romania had the second lowest FDI stock in the region, although it increased 11-fold between 1999 and 2015.
Romania, the country with the lowest FDI per capita at regional level
If in absolute terms Bulgaria is the country with the lowest FDI stocks, Romania is the country with the worst situation in terms of foreign investments per capita, according to a regional analysis.
The EY study mentions that the FDI/capita indicator does not fully reflect a country’s performance in attracting investment.
The market size of the analysed countries suggests that there are two comparability clusters – the first one includes Romania and Poland and the second the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria – because the number of inhabitants differs considerably.
In this context, Romania proves to be less attractive to foreign investors than Poland, against the background of a lower performance in terms of competitiveness indicators and the lack of strategies to attract FDI.
