Romania to launch new EUR 600 mln state aid scheme for large investments

Romania’s Government will launch a new state aid scheme for companies, which will be available until 2020 and will have a total budget of EUR 600 million for non-refundable financing. The maximum annual budget for the scheme will be about EUR 100 million, according to Mediafax. The state aid will be available for a number of about 150 companies which make investments that will have a major impact in the economy. It will finance only investments of more than EUR 10 million for new production facilities, for the expansion of existing capacities, or for adding new products in the benefiting company’s portfolio, according to a Government Decision project. In order to qualify for this scheme, companies must be profitable and have positive equity. The allocations in this scheme will be different depending on the regions where the companies are located. Romania’s Government has had five state aid schemes since 2007 in which it has granted EUR 738 million in financing by June this year, which supported investment projects totaling EUR 2.4 billion. Some 23,000 new jobs were created through these projects. editor@romania-insider.com