Nearly half of foreign investors present in Romania (46 pct) have cancelled, diminished or interrupted their investments in 2020, while 51 pct operated no change in planned investment projects, the EY Attractiveness Survey Romania data reveals, the first EY attractiveness study dedicated to the local market.
Nonetheless, investors remain optimistic, and 41 pct of them consider that Romania will be more attractive from the point of view of foreign direct investments after the conclusion of the pandemic. In this context, operations relating to logistics/ supply and production chains represent the main attraction for investments among 35 pct and 34 pct of responders, respectively.
Also, in the opinion of the investors, the key sectors that can favor the economic development of Romania in the coming years are: agriculture, the IT sector and the transport and automotive industries. At the same time, to increase competitiveness, education, technological transformation and infrastructure represent the main problem areas in which Romania should invest and concentrate their efforts to improve.
For the EY Attractiveness Romania study, research in the field was conducted by the CSA Institute in the July 17-31 period through phone interviews with 106 leaders of relevant international companies, of which 50 pct already have investments in Romania, and 50 pct are not currently conducting activities in the country.
Present in Romania, since 1992, EY is the leader on the market of professional services. The over 800 employees on the local level and the Republic of Moldova provide integrated audit, fiscal assistance, strategy and transaction, consultancy services to multinational and local companies.