Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble on Sept. 29 opened a $100 million hair-care plant at Urlati, in southern Romania, Procter chief executive Bob McDonald said.
"This is one of P&G's most advanced plants in the world, in terms of both technology and sustainability" McDonald said.
The plant has four production lines and employs 250 people.
Some 90% of its production will be exported to countries in the region but also to Russia and Turkey.
The company already owns a detergent plant in Timsoara in which it has invested $40 million.
Despite the crisis, "we had a very good start in the 2010 fiscal year, in line with expectations," Sotirios Marinidis, manager of P&G Romania, said. In 2009, when the Romanian economy shrank by 7.1%, the company posted "modest, single-digit growth" here.
"This plant is an example in terms of water and waste treatment," environment minister Laszlo Borbely said.
"The opening of the P&G factory shows foreign investors still have confidence in Romania," president Traian Basescu stressed. But direct foreign investments in the Balkan country have contracted by nearly a third in the fist half of 2010, to $2.4 billion.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
