The French carmaker Dacia Renault will invest no less than 450 million euros (around 574 million U.S. dollars) to build a design center in Titu, north of Bucharest, the Romanian government said on Wednesday.

The global automotive conception and design center of Renault will hire some 3,000 engineers and experts, said Romanian government spokesman Oana Marinescu.

The Romanian government approved on Wednesday the establishment of a working group, which will consist of representatives of several ministries, local authorities, and of Renault Co., to oversee the implementation of the project.

The project includes three stages that span the 2007-2009 period and it might also receive state aid, yet only under observance of the European norms, said Marinescu.

This project will make Romania the seventh European country with car design facilities. Titu will host the global conception and design centre for all the automobiles produced under the Renault brand, from the blueprint stage to that of prototype. Thus, all Renault cars will take shape in Titu before they enter series production in the various plants the French company owns worldwide.

Runways will be built in Titu for car tests in all conditions, including the underground, desert and arctic environments. The French company will invest in Titu's education infrastructure, healthcare and public services so that the city's population will double or even triple.

Renault Group has started recruitment in Romania, where 1,000 engineers were already hired. Out of the total of 3,000 engineers to be employed, 25 percent will be foreigners and 75 percent Romanians. As the project develops, the share of foreign experts will shrink to 5 percent of the total.

Source: Xinhua