The acquisition by Ford of the former Daewoo plant in Craiova, will mark the direct entry of a second major carmaker onto the Romanian market, after Renault acquired the Dacia plant in Pitesti. It will also bring about the complete transformation of the area.
The privatisation of the plant in Craiova was conducted with the creation of Romania's second car manufacturing centre in mind, after the one in Pitesti. Craiova was this way expected to contribute to the economic growth and development of the country, as Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu recently pointed out.
The takeover of the Daewoo plant by Ford will have a similar effect in the Oltenia region as Renault had in Mioveni, which brought with it some of its traditional suppliers.
A number of significant investments have already been made in the area, such as Pirelli, which began a 170 million-euro investment project in a tyre factory located close to the metallic cord factory, held in partnership with Continental.
The representatives of the National Agency for Foreign Investments (ARIS) say Ford's investment in Craiova will make investors in the automotive component industry more interested in the area. ARIS officials could not, however, specify the exact value of investments expected for Craiova over the coming period, stating that it depended on a number of factors and not just on the price of land, and the proximity to the main client.
Almost eight years after the acquisition of Automobile Dacia by Renault, the total investments in the Pitesti area generated by the French company and its suppliers have exceeded 1.2 billion euros. These investments have created more than 25,000 jobs on the Dacia site, after Automobile Dacia initially generated a wave of redundancies.
Since the arrival of Renault, the unemployment rate in Mioveni stands at only 2.8% and in Pitesti at ap
