AN INVESTMENT OF 20 MILLION EUROS The Toro Company inaugurates its Romanian plant

• State aid of 8 million Euros for the hiring of 100 workers

• The new factory will manufacture micro-irrigation factory for produce markets

American firm The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) yesterday inaugurated an irrigation equipment factory in the private industrial park Ploieşti West Park. The company has received 8 million Euros in state aid for the jobs which it will create by 2013. The investment amounts to approximately 20 million Euros. The plant will initially have 35 employees, and their number will reach 100 by 2013.

When asked whether the amount of 80,000 Euros for each new job created by the American company wasn"t a bit steep, Prime Minister Emil Boc, who was present at the inauguration, said that the aid will be recouped out of the taxes paid by the company and that this kind of aid has been offered to other major companies which invested in Romania as well. He said that the state aid offered to these companies is in compliance with an agreement with the European Union.

The Prime Minister added that the Romanian government has granted more than 280 million Euros in aids to "over 11 investors", Mediafax says. The chairwoman of the House of Deputies, Roberta Anastase, who attended the inauguration of the Toro plant, said that the aid granted to the company would be recouped in five years.

The Ploieşti factory will manufacture micro-irrigation products for vegetable farmers, owners of agricultural farmland, orchards and vineyards in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (the EMEA region). Furthermore, this project will also supplement the output capacity of the Toro plant in Rome, Italy. The new plant, which has a surface of 12,900 sqm, will place the Toro company closer to the EMEA market, which is growing, and where micro-irrigation is gaining ground in the irrigated agriculture sector. "This plant is part of the strategic investment plan of The Toro Company to create a center for manufacturing and exporting the company"s products in Eastern Europe", said Judy Altmaier, Vice-president of Operations of The Toro Company.

Prime Minister Emil Boc, who attended the inauguration of the company, said: "We support foreign investments in Romania, first of all by ensuring a stable economic environment, and by promoting responsible policies. The government will keep the flat tax rate at 16%, and the decision to exempt the reinvested profit from taxation, and will provide government aids, in compliance with national and European laws, to investors such as The Toro Company, which create jobs and added value in Romania".

Gheorghe Ialomiţianu, the Minister of Public Finance, said that the investment made by "Toro" will generate new jobs and added that this continues the trend for Romania to become a European production center for micro-irrigation equipment.

The Minister added: "Agriculture can become an important engine of the Romanian economy and I think that Romania is an attractive option for foreign investors in this sector".

Aside from the plant in Romania, Toro also owns factories which manufacture micro-irrigation systems in Italy, Australia and North America.