The year Romania joined the EU brought a record level of Romanian-German bilateral trade, which confirmed that the Romanian market still appeals to German firms, says Roland Lohkamp, the German ambassador to Romania, who is in the second year of his mandate in Bucharest.
"The volume of investments in German-held companies in late 2007 amounted to almost 2bn euros, which makes Germany the third biggest foreign investor in Romania. On top of this, the fact that a lot of German entrepreneurs invest here, in Romania, through their foreign subsidiaries, is added, so that Germany's importance as an investor is in fact bigger," Roland Lohkamp says.
Major German industrialists and retailers are now among the most powerful companies that operate in Romania and among the biggest private employers in the Romanian economy because they were among the first to give credit to Romania. German entrepreneurs invested in Romania as early as 1991, mainly lured by the size of the market, its position in the region and the low labour costs.
Over the past 15 years, direct German investments have had a significant contribution to the development of the auto components industry, modern trade and to the liberalisation of the Romanian energy market.
The ambassador also says Romania has succeeded in maintaining its advantages in attracting German investors.
The Germans were the first foreign investors to build car part plants in Romania. Domestically, the biggest German employer is Draxlmaier, which employs over 15,000 persons in 5 car part plants.
"I am confident that an increasing number of German services companies will invest in Romania," said Roland Lohkamp. Major retail groups in Germany have also had an outstanding presence in Romania. The only billionaires of Romanian trade are Metro and Rewe, two German groups that operate domestically with several un
