Newly-established companies running on foreign capital, up 9.1pct in Q1; share capital, up 27.3pct

The number of newly-established companies running on foreign capital increased in the first quarter of 2019 by 9.1%, compared with the same period of the previous year, to 1,496 units, according to data centralized by the National Trade Register Office (ONRC). 

The 1,496 new companies had a subscribed share capital of 3.941 million dollars, up 27.3% over the January-March 2018 period. 

According to the cited source, between 1991 and 2018, 221,334 companies with foreign capital were set up, the total amount of the subscribed share capital being over 63.117 billion dollars. 

On March 31, 2019, 222,830 foreign-owned companies were registered in Romania, most of them, namely 47,709, running on Italian capital, but the largest value of the share capital is that of Dutch companies, namely 13,011 billion dollars, in 5,302 companies. 

Among the top 50 countries of foreign-owned investors in foreign-controlled companies there were 20 non-European countries in March, the top three of which were: the US (7,720 companies, with a subscribed capital of 1.12 billion dollars), Turkey (15,524 companies with a capital of 730.8 million dollars) and China (12,645 companies with a capital of 406.3 million dollars). 

The hierarchy also includes companies in the British Virgin Islands (392 companies with a capital of 404.545 million dollars), Japan (370 companies, with a capital of 322.21 million dollars), South Korea (257 companies with a capital of 255.4 million dollars), the Bermuda Islands (17 companies with a capital of 164 million dollars), Lebanon (4,204 companies with a capital of 163.7 million dollars), Canada (2,020 companies with a capital of 145 million dollars), the Marshall Islands (33 companies with a capital of 53.6 million dollars, Seychelles (52 companies with a capital of 52.18 million dollars) and Belize (45 companies with a capital of 50.78 million dollars). 

According to official data, there are also countries like the Arab Republic of Syria (6.143 companies with a capital of 49.58 million dollars), Australia (803 companies with a capital of 47.6 million dollars), Egypt (1,834 companies, with a capital of 43.42 million dollars), the United Arab Emirates (394 companies with a share capital of 41.17 million dollars), the American Virgin Islands (187 companies, 36.29 million dollars), Saudi Arabia (209 companies with a capital of 31.97 million dollars), Jordan (3,427 companies with a capital of 29.38 million dollars) and Iraq (6,054 companies with a capital of 22.6 million dollars).