Moldova’s President nominates Romanian billionaire Dinu Patriciu’s former associate as Prime Minister

The Republic of Moldova’s President Nicolae Timofti has appointed the local investor Ion Sturza to take on as Prime Minister. Ion Sturza was an associate of late Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu and helped him sell Rompetrol group to Kazakh company KazMunayGas in 2007, a deal that turned Patriciu into Romania's richest. Sturza still needs the Parliament’s approval to take over the office, and his chances are low, as he doesn’t have much political support, according to Mediafax. He needs to get 51 votes out of a total of 101 members of the Parliament, but 58 MPs from the Socialist Party, Democratic Party, and the Communist Party have already said they wouldn’t vote for Sturza. Ion Sturza held the same office for a few months in 1999. The Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi had named him Prime Minister at that time. Sturza, 55, was president of oil & gas company Rompetrol Republica Moldova and one of late Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu’s partners in the Rompetrol business. He also set up the sale of the Romanian oil company Rompetrol to the Kazakh state-owned company KazMunayGas in 2007, for EUR 2.7 billion. In 2009, Sturza set up the private equity and venture capital fund Fribourg Capital. One of its most known projects is the Romanian online retailer elefant.ro that started as an online library and later turned into an online shopping mall. The fund has also started building a technology park in Cluj-Napoca, in the north-west of Romania. The project is called Liberty Technology Park. Sturza was born to the Sturdza family of Moldavian boyars. Sturdza is an old Romanian aristocratic family, whose origins can be traced back to the 17th century. Some of the Sturdza family members were princes of Moldavia in the 18th century. Ion Sturza graduated in economics from the Moldova State University. Before the fall of the USSR in 1991, he worked for the country’s Exterior Commerce Company. Right after the country’s independence, in 1991, Sturza founded the Incon Company, based in Chisinau. It soon became one of Moldova’s largest industrial groups, operating in the food and beverages industry. Moldavian investor takes over half of Romanian mining company Romaltyn, wants recycling pilot for mineral waste Diana Mesesan, diana@romania-insider.com