The investment in this facility will reach some €60 million, and production will begin sometime in mid-2008. Nokia plans through 2007 include the gradual erection of the factory and the recruitment of 500 employees. The production unit will occupy some 90 hectares in the Tetarom III industrial park, 21 kilometers from Cluj-Napoca.
As soon as the company landed in Cluj it was subjected to a fair amount of "hype," in the form of hysterical expectations, with the media spreading a figure provided by local authorities of some 15,000 employees to be hired, nearly leading to the loss of this investment opportunity. Rumors that Nokia will hire 15,000 people continue to abound, even though Nokia has repeatedly stated it needs only 500.
Business Standard managed to find out how several thousand jobs might come into existence following Nokia's investment in Cluj, although the figure has no relation to the one above, simply outrageous. Further jobs could be generated indirectly, as was the case with Nokia's Komarom factory (90 km from Budapest), in which the Finnish mother company invested some €100 million. The factory employs some 1,000 workers. The first mobile phone was assembled here in December 1999, and maximum production capacity of its nine non-stop assembly lines is about 3 million terminals. However, it was not Nokia alone that gave rise to job opportunities in Komarom. Perlos Ltd., a supplier of plastic mobile phone components, and several other companies supplying parts to Nokia, were attracted to the area by local facilities and a wish to collaborate with the world-renowned Finnish phone maker. At the factory's opening in 2000, Komarom's mayor at the time, Janos Zatyko, said that Nokia indirectly generated a few thousand jobs in town and neighboring villages for service providers.
