MEs in Romania, "three times fewer than in the EU"

The number of SMEs in Romania is three times lower than the EU average, drew attention the minister for SMEs.

Maria Grapini also warned that the number of Romanian companies that have suspended their activity increased from one year to another.

During 2011 – 2012, almost 70,000 companies have suspended their production.
Improving the access to finance and eliminating the bureaucratic barriers are the main measures identified by Maria Grapini to revive the SME sector.

„The financing need exists and we need to see how we can fill up these financing costs, and therefore we have only seven projects that are adressed to SMEs and that we have started this year in another form, trying to diminish also the bureaucracy, the second element that SMEs confront with, because the percentage of costs from the total cost for a large company and also for a small company when the institutional demand, bureaucratic, is the same, obviously it's different.

"And therefore, at least in my portfolio, all projects are no longer submitted on written paper, but put online, to be able to simplify the bureaucracy", said Maria Grapini.

The minister for SMEs, business and tourism, Maria Grapini, proposed to the Ministry of Finance to grant a non-refundable aid for SMEs that make investments.

The project is included on the meeting agenda of the government on Wednesday.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University