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Why Iași?

Why Iași — economy and skills

Skills and economic specialisation

Iași County is the main economic hub of the North-East region and one of the county economies with the greatest capacity to attract and sustain value-added activities.

The local offer for investors is underpinned by a base of specialised human capital and a diversified economic ecosystem, with relevant skills in engineering, software development, applied research, electronics, automotive and precision mechanical processing.

For industrial projects, this economic profile provides access to the technical and professional skills needed for production operations, product development, industrialisation and technology integration, reducing the need to build a skills base solely through external recruitment.

The value for the investor lies in the availability of skills, not in competing on the lowest labour cost.

Iași County in figures

RON 65.7 bn

County GDP, EUR 13.03 bn. 2025 estimate · National Commission for Strategy and Forecasting, spring 2026 variant

Over 50,000

Students in five state universities and two accredited private ones

118,514

Employees in active companies, 2025

22,730

Employees in industry, 2025

13,793

Employees in IT&C, 2025

RON 8,868

Average gross monthly wage. January 2026

3.39%

Registered unemployment rate. June 2026

EUR 1.08 bn

Exports, 2025

760,774

Inhabitants. Iași County · latest official demographic base available

The case for Iași County

  • The largest engineering hub in eastern Romania Five state universities; the top two alone had almost 37,000 students in 2024–2025. Aumovio, spun off from Continental, around 2,800 employees. Amazon Development Center Romania, the company's first research centre in Eastern Europe, 3,166 employees at the end of 2025. Around 14,000 IT and automotive specialists in the city-centre office cluster, 9,000 at Palas and 5,000 at Palas Campus.
  • The engineering is here, the manufacturing is not The largest automotive-electronics design team in eastern Romania, and no production unit in this field. A qualified workforce already trained, a few kilometres from the available industrial sites.
  • Western investors without incentives Along Iași–Tomești: BMT Aerospace and IG Watteeuw, both part of the Belgian BMT group, and Grenzebach România, with German capital. The BMT Aerospace unit in Iași is the group's only plant worldwide producing aircraft wing-mechanism components.
  • Top national rankings The World Bank index for 319 urban localities: 3rd in information and communications technology, 5th in the chemical industry, 8th in transport and logistics.
  • Regional State aid on par with the region 50% of eligible costs for large enterprises. For STEP investments, up to 60%. Research and development tax incentives apply in addition, independent of location.
  • Romania's second-largest airport Iași International Airport, under the Iași County Council: over 2 million passengers a year, 26 direct destinations, seven airlines. Terminal T2 is being converted into a cargo terminal.
  • The eastern gateway of the European Union The TEN-T Core corridor, Timișoara – Târgu Mureș – Iași – Ungheni. Traffic at Sculeni grew from 681,164 persons in 2020 to 2,562,531 in 2025.
  • Four sites, one administrator The Lețcani industrial park and agrihub, operational; Holboca and Pașcani, in preparation. The same company, one counterpart. Land already county-owned: no expropriation and no land assembly.
  • Position on the A8 corridor Once the motorway is completed, Lețcani will be the first titled industrial park in the county located next to the A8 motorway, at the junction of Târgu Frumos – Lețcani and Lețcani – Iași North.

An institutional ecosystem for your investment

Iași County Council

The single point of contact at county level, coordination with local authorities and information on county-administered assets.

The park administrator

At no additional cost: assistance with permits and authorisations, support for tax incentives, contacts with utility providers and updates on funding sources.

Regional and European

The North-East RDA manages the North-East Regional Programme and the smart specialisation strategy. The Enterprise Europe Network, through Tehnopolis, searches for partners free of charge in over 50 countries.

Investor's Guide, Iași County, 2026 edition

Investor's Guide, Iași County, 2026 edition

Workforce, infrastructure, key sectors, legal and fiscal framework, funding sources. Produced under the coordination of the Invest in Iași Association, in partnership with the Iași County Council, Iași City Hall and the Iași Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Every indicator is referenced to its official source. The English edition is a translation; the Romanian edition remains the reference.

Download the guide (PDF)