FACTBOX-Romanian finance minister designate Pogea

BUCHAREST, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Romania's centrist Democrat-Liberal Party (PD-L) on Thursday nominated Gheorghe Pogea to be finance minister in its centre-left coalition government, due to be endorsed by parliament on Dec. 22.

Here are five facts about Pogea:

-- Pogea, a 52-year-old metallurgy engineer, entered Romanian politics eight years ago as member of a centrist grouping that later became the PD-L, a party with close links to President Traian Basescu.

-- He has experience running industrial companies. In 1997 he became the head of a steel mill in Transylvania, now an unit of ArcelorMittal. He has headed a construction firm controlled by Adriean Videanu who was then Bucharest mayor and was nominated on Thursday as economy minister.

-- Pogea drafted economic programmes for the centrists ahead of the 2004 and the 2008 elections and was briefly responsible for overseeing economic reforms in 2005 and 2006 under outoing Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu.

-- In an interview with Reuters, he said the PD-L would aim to step up efforts to join the euro in 2014, saying membership would offer protection from global turbulence.

-- In a country where most politicians are frequent guests on numerous television talk shows, Pogea avoids the spotlight.