Cluj Innovation City, project started in the summer of 2012 under the name of Cluj Silicon Valley as one of the eight development poles of Romania starts to take shape and draw attention to foreign investors, both of Europe and of other continents, says The Diplomat.The project started at the initiative of the cluster Cluj IT, an association of IT companies, local authorities and the academic environment, being a concept derived from the initiative of the Department for Business environment of the ministry of economy led at that time by Lucian Isar.
The IT cluster includes over 30 companies with a cumulated business of over 100 million euro and will concentrate the biggest part of companies in the domain in the region, with a view to developing projects and innovative technologies in the IT domain.
In the long run, over approximately 15 years, the companies member of the cluster intend to develop a real Silicon Valley of Cluj with over 20,000 specialists. In fact, the initiators of Cluj Innovation City want that in 15 years, the Dealul Lombului on the outskirts of Cluj be a city with approximately 100,000 inhabitants to spread on 200 ha.
According to the present estimates, made by the partners who proposed projects in the Cluj Innovative City, the investment will be approximately 2 billion euro. The necessary funding for the project will be drawn both from public funding and private investment through private-public partnerships, Isar explained. At present, there are 32 projects, both including research centres, grouped on strategic domains-Centre for Innovation in the Science of Life, Centre for Innovation in IT&C, Centre for Innovation in Environment and Energy, Innovation Centre in Health, each of them reuniting several institutes.
