The Romanian government on Wednesday decided to allocate 12 million lei (about 4.7 million U. S. dollars) for funding the infrastructure work and the utilities network of an industrial park in central county of Cluj, where Finish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is to build a factory and research center.

"This is a project that makes me very happy as it refers to making some products and services with a high added value in the field of high technologies, in the filed of telecommunications and information science," said Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, adding that the governmental funding paved the way for the setting up of this technological park.

This industrial park will include a Nokia plant for manufacturing electronic equipment. The total investment will be about 200 million euros (360 million U.S. dollars) and approximately 15,000 jobs will be created, according to the official sources.

Nokia in March signed a deal with the Romanian government to open a cell phone production facility, the company's 11th globally. Nokia said its decision to build a factory in Romania reflected increased demand for mobile devices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The production is expected to begin in the first half of 2008.