Here is a somewhat detailed story about what the software park is all about (thanks everybody for the emails with the details and links).

The good news is that the piece of news about a somewhat tech agglomeration from Galati is true. In addition, people in the industry started to get the interest and acknowledge the need of such a park. The bad news is that what we have here is not a true software park, but rather the Romanian interpretation of it. Here is why I think it eventually will not be something sustainable:

1. A software park means a FISCAL tool -- whereas the firms located in it have financial incentives on taxes. What do we have here? NOTHING. Companies located in the park have no financial benefits from the state whatsover. 

2. A software park is a business like any other business. It has to be profitable, and thus has to have a decent management in order to survive. Who is managing the park? The local authorities. Now, I don't know these particular folks, I have nothing personal against them, but what is the reputation of Romanian management at the governemntal level? Very bad. Why? Because the people from these positions are persons in their 40s or 50s with a long life experience under the former communists regime. THAT'S IT!! I tend to agree with Radu Georgescu's cynicism when saying that in order to move on we have to wait until some of the old folks would just go away. As simple as that.

3. Who are the shareholders? The Romanian State. Where is the money coming form? Errrr, from the budget, of course, and perhpas some funds from the EU. Again what does history show us? Until 2003 The Romanian government was unable to spend its money allocated by the EU for developing infrastructure or viable projects. Why is that? They say because they didnot have the projects. I say it's because they didnot have the competent people to get involved

4. A software development park is what its name implies. A place where companies in the field have (some of) their offices and where employees perform their daily jobs. What is our case? Microsoft will be present in Galati through the Microsoft IT Academy, "hoping to develop later". That speaks for itself! There is a long way to the true technological park that allows competition or firms from up or down the value chain sit under the same roof and benefit form what theory calls "knowledge spillover". Unfortunately the way this story looks like shows no evidence of meeting criteria for what the technology parks are famous for.

My guess is that both parties are satisfied with what is going on. This way the government can claim that they did something to help the IT Romanian industry, while the others may think that this is better than nothing. BTW, I googled "parc tehnologic" galati, and "technology park" Galati, and guess what? In the first two pages, in both cases there is NO OFFICIAL INFO from it, just links to some bits and pieces from news feeds. If that. Very professional, boys!

Finally, besides the positive and negatives of this story, I think it is worth mentioning Tatomir's words from the above linked story from BusinessRomania: "out of the three elements needed for a successful IT (good management, tax incentives and lobby) software/hardware park, Romania has only one: the technology and know-how support". Too bad that we are famous for this but have no idea how to make it a national asset.