Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon has called for a meeting with representatives of Japanese investors who came to Iceland last November with the intention of investing some 1 billion USD in the country.
As was reported yesterday, a group of Japanese investors came to Iceland last November with a billion USD and a recovery plan, but had yet to receive an answer from the government.
According to Ragnar Önundarson, speaking to Morgunblaðið, the investors arrived last fall with the intention of delivering their ideas to the government – among them, to buy up the failed banks, rebuild them anew, and build a geothermal power plant with the proceeds. Önundarson said he took the businessmen to meet then Minister of Finance Árni Matthiassen, and gave him a letter outlining their intentions.
The investors had since received no response from the government. When Sigfússon was informed of the investors’ plans, he had said that this is the first he’d heard of it, adding that the news might have “fallen between ships” during ministerial changes last November.
However, later that same day the minister made the decision to call for a meeting with representatives of these investors, to get a clearer picture on what their plans more specifically entail. No word yet on an exact date and time for the meeting.