TransMin Bode says Romania needs investments of almost 80 B euro in transport area, in the next 10 years

Romania needs investments of almost 80 billion euro in the transport area, in the next 10 years, and the money will be taken from European funds and the state budget, Transport Minister Lucian Bode announced on Tuesday evening.

"Our assessments reveal that, in the next 10 years, Romania needs, on all ways of transport, road, rail, aerial and naval, investments worth 77.9 billion euro, of which 41 billion only for road infrastructure. It is a fundamentally scientific calculation based on everything that Romania needs to do in this sector, starting from the main axes, from the secondary corridors, from the interconnection of these corridors, from border axes, everything that Romania needs in this sector the next 10 years amounts to about 80 billion euro," Bode told B1 TV private television station.

He mentioned that the money will be taken from European funds, but also from the state budget, although Romania will have to allocate "a much higher percentage of GDP for infrastructure."

"We will take the money from the European funds and from the state budget because we must do this. Today, we have 0.6 per cent of the GDP earmarked for investments in infrastructure. If we want to have a built-up infrastructure, then we need to allocate a much higher percentage of the GDP to infrastructure. And thirdly, it is very important to see what partnerships we can conclude with financial institutions to lend us money because Romania must allow itself to borrow enough to be able to develop its infrastructure. Infrastructure development means economic development," the Minister of Transport said.

Bode provided the example of Bucharest-Constanta motorway, which, after 4 years since it entered into service, led to a tripling of the GDP in nominal value of Constanta county.