Financiarul

In order to find a good position for itself at the international auction regarding the multi-role aircraft, Gripen is ready to pay 50 percent for the obligations of direct offset in the military field and to start being paid money after 5-7 years, said Richard Smith, marketing manager at Gripen, in an interview given to daily Financiarul.

The 50 percent as obligations of direct offset in the military field, offered by Gripen are an asset which the company has created for winning the tender regarding the acquisition by Romania of the multi-role aircraft the Romanian Army will be equipped with.

The remaining 50 percent are investment and business in the civil field. In this area, Gripen is looking for business partners in the civil area, to general electricity and industrial steam obtaining by the burning of waste, Smith stressed.

The marketing manager said the company already has contracts with Romanian company Romero, which makes the Gripen fighter and a missile. Also, Gripen has a memorandum signed with Romanian Aerostar Bacau Co.

If it gets the contract for the multi-role aicraft Gripen wants to assembly it in Bacau, north-Eastern Romania.

There, the Swedish company is ready to make the integration of the systems as well as the integration of the multi-role maintenance.

Gripen is also interested in Avioane Craiova, south.

Although the tender for the aquisition of this plant was won by Alenia Aeronautica, the final contract has not been signed yet, waiting for the approval of EU, because the write-off the debts can be regarded as state aid for which community approval is necessary.

Richard Smith also said in the interview that if a direct sale is at stake, Gripen is ready to start cashing money after 5-7 years, when the global crisis is overcome.

In addition, as such a programme is concluded at the level of government, the Swedish company also takes into account the granting of a preferential interest.

Practically, Romania would start paying the installments only after it receives all the planes commanded, Smith also said.

Another system it proposes is the sale in a leasing system, the way it has done also in the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The Grippen official stressed that his company will do everything it can to get the contract, continuing making lobby in Romania, through the embassy and at the European institutions.

He believes that in this business normal is that first comes the interest of the citizens of Romania, because, in the end, their are the taxpayers who will take the bill.