German automotive parts maker Bosch will invest 77 million euros ($101 million) in a new plant in Romania, the Romanian government said Thursday.

Bosch will initially employ some 300 people in the plant to be erected in an industrial park near Cluj, in north-western Romania.

"The Romanian government is ready to back all investments that create job, including by granting them state aid," Prime minister Emil Boc said at the end of a meeting with the vice-president of Bosch's Automotive Electronics division, Guenther Gauss.

Boc stressed the importance of the German group's decision to invest in Cluj, thus filling a gap left by the closure late last year of mobile phone giant Nokia's plant.

Nokia's closure had sparked anger in Romania, depriving the Balkan country of more than two billion euros in annual export revenues.

Last week, Italian home appliances maker De'Longhi bought Nokia's site and promised to invest 30 million in starting a production line there.