Netherland IS NOT the Biggest Foreign Investor – WHO Are the Top Investing Countries in Romania?

The National Bank of Romania has published the annual report of Foreign Investments in Romania. For the first time, the report for 2019 shows exactly who the investors are depending on their residence.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the main sources of development of an economy, as it is complementary to public investment and investment by residents from private sources.

According to all previous studies, the main foreign investor in Romania was the Netherlands. Actually, the Netherlands ranks first in the ranking with direct investments in Romania of 20.5 billion euros. In the 2019 ranking, it is shown that 75% of the over 20 billion euros are not investments from the Netherlands, but from companies belonging to other countries, predominantly American companies headquartered in the Netherlands. According to the latest data from 2019 provided by the Corporate Tax Heaven Index, in the top of the European ranking of tax havens, the Netherlands ranks first, followed by Luxembourg and Ireland.

With investments that stand out especially in the branch of technology information and communication (over 780 million euros), in the manufacturing industry (over 480 million euros), and in trade, in the top of the new ranking of investor countries in Romania, is Germany with over 14% of total foreign investment, followed by Austria with over 11%, France with over 9%, Italy with over 8%, the United States with 6.6% and then the Netherlands with 6.2%.
The new statistics are important because it was considered that the United States of America had too little economic role in Romania, being only on the 16th place in the top of investing countries in the past rankings.

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Statistics on foreign direct investment are used to develop a country’s economic strategies and policies, as well as to compile other macroeconomic indicators. Thus, the flows of foreign direct investment and the income obtained by non-residents from the foreign direct investment are part of the financial account, respectively of the current account of the balance of payments. The stock of foreign direct investment is an important component of the international investment position. However, Romania is concerned about the political influence it gives to foreign investments, not at all about the economic importance of investors, according to the Romanian reputable economist Mircea Coșea.