Local entrepreneurs near Kogalniceanu American military base gain important profits due to the presence of US troops there, US military publication Stars and Stripes reports on Monday.

One of them, Gheorge Enache, says that his business has been thriving since the Americans came in the area. He owns a hotel where he receives his American guests. The profit rose by 20% last year and now he is planning to expand the hotel.

The publication comments that the impact of the American troops near the Black Sea port of Constanta will not be significant to the economic development of the area.

However, the Pentagon invests million of dollars in the local economy: this year the government will plan 35 million dollars to demolish the old buildings in the former Romanian base and in building new ones, according to local sources.

Another 20 million dollars will be allocated in 2008 for the building of new estates in the Kogalniceanu military base.