The European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group), comprising the European Investment Bank (EIB) and its subsidiary, the European Investment Fund (EIF), provided EUR 1.31 billion in loans, guarantees, equity and microfinance operations in Romania in 2018, announced Minister of Public Finance, Eugen Teodorovici in a press conference, on Wednesday.
“The EIB signed new loan contracts for EUR 981 million, while the EIF committed EUR 329 million in three equity, 13 guarantee and three microfinance operations for the development of important projects throughout the country,” said Teodorovici, quoted by Agerpres. “As we have stated, 2019 must be a year of investments. In this regard, we invite the EIB Group to strengthen our partnership with a well-balanced financial support directed both to the public sector and the private sector”, the minister added.
The amounts committed by the EIB Group will benefit some 8,800 small businesses, companies that are supporting approximately 200,000 jobs in Romania, writes a press release from EIB.
The EIB Group support in 2018 represented some 0.64 percent of Romanian GDP, said EIB Vice-President Andrew McDowell, and the country ranks 11th among EU Member States in terms of volume of EIB Group activities. “2018 was a very successful year for the EIB Group in Romania. We provided well-balanced support totaling EUR 1.3 billion to the country, financing both public sector projects and – increasingly – private corporates and SMEs, often through guarantees from the Investment Plan for Europe. Almost 9,000 businesses benefited from our operations, which supported some 200,000 jobs”, commented EIB Vice-President Andrew McDowell.
Last year the EU Bank provided a EUR 68 million loan to white goods producer Arctic to finance the construction of a large-scale innovative washing machine production plant, and signed a EUR 50 million first tranche of a EUR 150 million loan with Transgaz to support a new pipeline to link Romania’s natural gas resources on the shores of the Black Sea. The EIB lent EUR 10 million to Radiocom to support the roll-out of a digital TV broadcasting network and EUR 150 million to Warehouses De Pauw to finance the construction of warehouses in Romania’s convergence regions.
The Bank supported the projects of innovative companies to foster research and development, and to introduce innovative production technologies in Romania: EUR 7 million to finance the development of an innovative and sustainable European car industry and EUR 3 million to Cikautxo Group to finance the RDI and capital expenditures of this automotive company at existing facilities in Romania.
In 2018, the EIB provided a EUR 450 million loan to Romania to finance the implementation of the Romanian Rural Development Programme (RDP) and granted EUR 14 million to the Municipality of Oradea to finance improvements to its urban infrastructure.
The Bank provided a EUR 12 million loan to finance the first investment programme of Bucharest Sector 5 for the energy efficiency of residential buildings. Approximately 100 buildings are being refurbished. It is expected to result in heating energy savings of around 50 percent for the buildings concerned.