Minister of Tourism and Regional Development Elena Udrea wants to sell homes made by the National Housing Agency for EUR 360 million

The members of the joint Public Administration Commissions of the two houses of the Parliament yesterday unanimously approved the budget for the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MDRT), together with all the proposed amendments.

The Ministry will have a budget of 2.078 billion lei for 2010, cut by 31% compared to the year 2009. According to Agerpres, 550.47 million lei (129.5 million lei) have been allocated for projects financed using EU grants, for the year 2010.

Almost 9,000 homes built by the National Housing Agency (ANL), sold for average price of 40,000 Euros, could bring EUR 360 million to the state budget, which could be used to build more homes for young families in 2010, said the minister of Development and Tourism, Elena Udrea, after the hearings by the two joint commissions ended.

She said that some of the plans of the Ministry for 2010 include building a golf course near Bucharest, on a 50 hectare field provided by the mayoralty of Snagov: "The project will be built after we secure funding. We have considered a shadow toll partnership. If this solution doesn"t work, we will consider the alternatives. Bulgaria has 121 golf courses so far, just as they successfully developed their seaside and mountain tourism offerings. A ballpark figure for this project would be several million Euros".

This year, the Ministry will allocate 150 million lei for the thermal rehabilitation of 7,200 apartments for which construction began in 2009 and will begin the construction of another 7,200 apartments, Elena Udrea announced.

The 2010 budget presented by Elena Udrea includes a project to build low-cost housing which would cost an estimated 500 million lei for (30 million lei for 1,100 apartments), the construction of social housing for tenants evicted from homes confiscated by the Communist regime which were returned to their rightful owners (40 million lei), the construction of 11 cultural centers and the rehabilitation of 22 existing ones (50 million lei), the continuation of the works for the construction of 22 swimming pools (50 million lei), the asphalting and stone paving of regional roads (321 million lei) and the consolidation of nine multiple-floor buildings (8 million lei).