Latest update: 22/01/2009 

- financial crisis - Romania


Villagers' Nokia fairytale is slipping away
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When Nokia, one of the world's leading mobile phone makers, relocated its German factory to the small Romanian village of Jucu, it brought the villagers much hope. Then the global financial crisis came along.
By FRANCE 24 / Mirel BRAN / Patrick LOVETT (text)

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This was supposed to be nothing short of a fairytale. At the end of 2007, Finnish multinational phone makers Nokia relocated its German factory to Jucu, a rural village in Romania. Nokia’s plan was ambitious. Villagers were enthusiastic.

 

Ioan Pojar, Jucu mayor: “Twenty years ago, there was a Revolution in Romania. And today, with Nokia coming here, it’s a revolution for our village! It’s going to be an explosion of prosperity!”

 

Nokia’s arrival in Jucu was indeed providential: last year the village budget increased by 30,000 euros – double the money granted by the Romanian government. One of the mayor’s first decisions was to build a new school. But until the building is completed, children have to study without heat in the bitterly cold winter.

 

Village mayor: “I myself was a pupil in this school. Twenty years after the fall of communism, we are finally going to build a new school.”