Dacia representatives are preparing a production resumption scenario to protect people’s health, and ”I am optimistic that this will happen in the second half of April,” Economy Minister Virgil Popescu said on Thursday.

“Dacia and Ford are already having technically unemployed (employees – e.n.), as well as part of the horizontal industry. Dacia has over 16,000 employees, Ford 6,000. There are probably around 100,000 working in the horizontal industry nationwide. They want to start things, but they are somewhat dependent on the industries in the European countries, the big producers, the supply chain. After meeting with the Government last night, we had a video conference with several industries, including those from Dacia, directly from the factory. They told me they were preparing a production resumption scenario, but also having in mind to protect people’s health. Think, there are 16,000 employees, but they are preparing a workflow, so as to respect the distance of 1 – 1.5 meters between the employees, have protective masks, biocides, hand gels so that the work is carried out safely. This is something that I enjoy. That means that these people are thinking resuming production,” the minister told Digi 24, according to Agerpres.

He added that Dacia is a national brand and that “it is essential to start production for the Romanian economy there”.

Dacia stopped production at the plants in Mioveni on March 19, until April 5, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, and 13,500 employees went into technical unemployment.