Bucharest recently hosted the conference “Italy & Romania – Building together”, co-organised by ICE (the Agency for the Internationalisation and Promotion Abroad of Italian Companies), ANCE (the Italian Association of Private Building Contractors) and OICE (the Italian Trade Association for Engineering and Technical-Economic Consultancy Work), under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Bucharest.
The event, which was opened by the Italian Ambassador in Bucharest, Marco Giungi, and introduced by the Director of ICE-Agency in Bucharest, Luca Gentile, aimed to illustrate to the more than 100 Italian and Romanian participants present Romania’s projects in the area of infrastructure and public works in order to evaluate the partnership and know-how exchange opportunities, with a special focus on the projects co-financed by the EU and supported by international financial organizations.
The delegation, which included 45 Italian companies operating in the construction sector, was led by Vincenzo Ercole Salazar Sarsfield, the Coordinator for the promotion abroad of the infrastructure and large projects sector at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and by Gaetano Vecchio, President of the International SME Group of ANCE, who attended the meeting. The meeting was divided into two parts: a panel was scheduled in the morning and included Romanian and Italian institutional and business representatives; and B2B meetings were held in the afternoon.
The Romanian Ministry of transport has allocated 370 million euros for the construction of highways and ringroads in 2018, almost 20% more than in 2017, estimated to amount to 1.44 billion lei (approximately 310 million euros). The priorities are the start of work on the Sibiu- Pitesti highway and the finishing off of the Sebeş-Turda and Lugoj-Deva highways.
The budget for the construction of the highways and ringroads will increase significantly over the next few years and the Ministry of Transport has also increased the budget to upgrade national roads. More funds have already been allocated to the road infrastructure maintenance programme, to develop infrastructure on the Danube and to increase the capacity of airports.
The priority projects of the Ministry of Transport for 2018 and for the 2019-2021 two-year period concern road infrastructure (completing works, upgrades and connections to European roads and highways); railways (a metro in Bucharest, and the upgrade of installations), areas (modernisation of airports and aerodromes), maritime (terminal for the port of Constanta, upgrade of port infrastructure, moorings, sluices), intermodal (creation of intermodal hubs in several locations through European financing).
