RO Govt. moves slowly with paying promised grants to SMEs

Romania's Government has so far disbursed only one-quarter of the RON 4.3 billion (EUR 880 mln) working capital grants, and none of the EUR 550 mln investment grants promised to small and medium companies (SMEs), according to the latest data published by Startupcafe.ro.

Only 27 working capital grants were processed over the past week, and 63 were approved, taking the total number of projects financed under the scheme to 16,692.

The investment grants scheme was suspended after the new minister of economy Claudiu Nasui spotted alleged frauds related to both the procedure (confidential information disclosed to applicants) and the final beneficiaries - some of them "investing" in apartments and other real estate assets instead of helping their businesses hit by the crisis.

The first scheme of the program launched last year by the Government to support SMEs hit by the crisis, under which EUR 2,000 microgrants were disbursed to freelancers and small firms, was already completed.

However, it also had the lowest budget - RON 190 mln, or some EUR 40 mln - so its impact is lower than that of the other two measures - working capital grants of up to EUR 150,000 and investment grants up to EUR 200,000.

(Photo: Henning Marquardt/ Dreamstime)