Romania's Govt. ponders setting up EUR 300 mln investment fund

Romania's prime minister Ludovic Orban, speaking at Digi24 TV on June 1, outlined three measures aimed at supporting economic recovery.

One of them is a EUR 300 million investment fund that the Government will capitalize, launch, float, and later let it finance itself.

PM Orban argued against consumption-driven growth and for research, innovation, development, and economic transfer - the elements that consolidate competitiveness.

The Government already earmarked EUR 100 mln for the project and seeks another EUR 200 mln, possibly from EU grants to the extent this will be possible, PM Orban said.

"The idea is to list [the fund] on the stock market. To issue securities. To issue bonds, at a later moment. But first, the fund needs to demonstrate its capabilities, to show that it can generate profit from the investments it makes," explained Orban.

The other two measures mentioned by PM Orban are an instrument to subsidize bank loans for large companies (the way IMM Invest does for SMEs) and an instrument to guarantee trade credit - that would prevent liquidity squeeze among large companies.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)