Local business foundation tries to bring Romanians back home through repatriation project

The Romanian Business Leaders Foundation, which brings together leading entrepreneurs and business leaders from the private sector in Romania, has recently launched a repatriation project for Romanians living abroad. Re>patriot is a repatriation project through entrepreneurship that aims to support Romanians who want to return to their home country and start a business here. The project offers them information and advice for a quick access to the opportunities of doing business in Romania. Studies show that almost a quarter of the Romanians living abroad would invest in a business in Romania, while their country needs more entrepreneurial businesses. “They have the money, the knowledge, the skills, the experience and a great capacity for work. So far the money they sent back home had an important contribution to Romania’s growth,” said project leader Marius Bostan. In a first stage, Re>patriot targets Romanians living in Spain, Italy and the UK, some of the European countries with the largest number of Romanian immigrants. Seven conferences will be organized in these countries, which will offer Romanians living there the chance to enter into direct contact with successful entrepreneurs in Romania. More info on the project’s website here. According to data presented by the European Statistics (Eurostat), Romanians living abroad sent EUR 2.1 bln home. Number of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants in Britain more than doubled in the past year. Romanians remain the largest community of immigrants in Spain. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com