EY Romania: Romania ranks 4th in Europe in point of investment intentions next year

At European level, Romania ranks 4th in point of investment intentions next year, after Portugal, Great Britain and Lithuania, either for financing new businesses or expanding existing ones, said Bogdan Ion, County Managing Partner Romania & Moldova, Chief Operating Officer – Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe & Central Asia.   According to the study EY Attractiveness Survey Romania, more than half (56%) of foreign companies intend to set up or expand operations in Romania this year, which ranks the country 4th in Europe, equal to France and after Portugal (62%), Lithuania (60%) and United Kingdom (58%). Romania is above European average, which is 53%.   “Our study was made over April-June 2022, which includes Ukraine war effects in the context of investors' perception. It includes both investors active in Romania and potential investors and concentrates on the year 2021. Even in this situation, it is important to say that the study has positive results about Romania, where sometimes our local perception is much more critical. I would like to show come of our conclusions. First of all, at European level, Romania ranks 4th from the perspective of investment intentions next year, after Portugal, Great Britain and Lithuania, wither about setting up new businesses or expanding existing businesses. We rank 2nd in Central and Eastern Europe after Poland from this perspective,” said Bogdan Ion, when launching the third edition of EY Romania Attractiveness Survey.   He mentioned that most of those who take into account the opportunity of investing in Romania think about the sector of supply and logistic chains. “Romania ranks first in Europe, according to our study, from the perspective of investment intentions, if we consider supply and logistic chains. In other words, we see that this localization of supply flows,” he said.   33% id investors consider that Romania's attractiveness will grow in future years, which according to the source is a positive result, which also shows a challenge and especially the fact that the increase of local economy competitiveness is needed.   According to the investors' opinion, future sectors in Romania are: media and telecommunications technology, consumer goods industry, including agribusiness; automobile industry with branches. Bogdan Ion pointed out that these sectors were mentioned as key sectors in previous studies.   At European level, the mentioned study ranks Bucharest 25th of 44 cities, exceeding capitals like Budapest, Vilnius, Riga and important European cities like Munich, Porto, Rotterdam, Geneva and Valencia.   In 2021, Bucharest was the most important city for direct foreign investments, leading the top with 38.9%, while the western area totaled 19.5% of direct foreign investment, the only representatives being the counties of Arad and Timis.   About a quarter of future investments in Romania (24%) will be attracted by the western area, the main county in the area is Salaj, with 9% of investments, followed by Arad, Timis and Bihor, each with 5%. Muntenia ranks third, Arges and Prahova being the only representatives, each with 3.5% of total investments. On the other hand, the north eastern area of Romania is represented by Neamt (1.8%) and Suceava (1.8%) counties. In the southern part of Romania the only county attracting investments in Teleorman with 1,8% of total.   According to 2021 predictions, Romania becomes a large center of logistic and production operations in Eastern Europe, due to its competitiveness in matters of costs and labor force offers, Ukraine events acting as a bonding factor. At present, Romania is the most sought destination for investments in 2022 for supply and logistic chains.   “Encouraging environment protection policies and attitudes was selected, for the second year in a row, the second most important aspect on which Romania should focus its future efforts to remain competitive among global economies. However, when asked about how can Romania remain attractive in point of sustainability, about 59% of executive leaders declared that regulations are needed to support durable commercial practices (such as recycling obligations, biodiversity protection, standards for ecological buildings). 45% of them considered that Romania should improve its potential for supply chain decarbonization (reducing transports, through durable material access). 43% of respondents declared that it is important to increase the number of renewable sources in electricity production, while 42% mentioned that Romania should ensure the existence of necessary abilities and competences to facilitate sustainability projects,” EY Romania pointed out.   According to the consulting company, the attractiveness of a destination is defined as a combination of images, the investors' confidence degree and the perception on the country's capacity to offer the most competitive benefits for ISD.   Within the EY competitiveness study for Romania, field research was made by Euromoney between March 2 and 31 through online interviews with 101 leaders of relevant international companies, of which 50% are already established in Romania and 50% are outside the country.