Business: Greek National Tourism Organisation office opens in Bucharest

18/07/2008

The Greek National Tourist Organisation opens an office in Bucharest. Also in the news this week: Croatia's FDI is 50% down from the same period last year, and Austria's leading electricity provider and a Turkish counterpart will build power plants in Turkey.

The GNTO office's main task will be to promote travel to Greece. [Getty Images]

The Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) opened its first office in Bucharest, Greece's Ministry of Tourism announced on Thursday (July 17th). The GNTO office's main task will be to promote travel to Greece and boost Romanian tourists' interest in the country, the ministry said.

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Salaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) public sector are relatively high for the region, undermining the competitiveness of the country's private sector, Sanjaj Katurija, the chief economist at the World Bank's Sarajevo office, said Tuesday (July 15th). He said this factor in turn affects BiH's exports and translates into a higher trade deficit.

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Croatia was 688m euros in the first quarter of this year, down 50% from the same period last year, the Croatian National Bank announced on Monday (July 14th). Total FDI for all of 2008 is expected to amount to 2.5 billion euros, compared to the record 3.9 billion euros registered last year.

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German car part producer Reum and Slovenia's Grah have announced plans to build a plant in Jagodina, Serbia. Corporate and municipal officials signed a preliminary agreement on Tuesday (July 15th). The two companies intend to invest a total of 10m euros in the facility, which will make parts for BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes and Audi.

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Austria's leading electricity supplier, Verbund, and its Turkish partner, Sabanci Holding, are planning to expand their activities in Turkey by building power plants and buying distribution grids. The venture received a 1 billion-euro loan from the World Bank, Turkish Akbank and the German-based bank, WestLB.

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Romania will grant state aid worth up to 25m euros to companies that invest more than 100m euros and create at least 500 jobs, sources from the finance ministry said. The government will provide aid only if an investment continues in its designated region for at least five years after the completion of the project.

(Various sources – 11/07/08-18/07/08)