Over half of Romanian entrepreneurs expect friendlier environment in maximum 10 years

Over half of Romanian entrepreneurs believe Romania will offer a business-friendly environment in maximum ten years, according to a recent EY study. Some 34% believe this will happen in 5-10 years while 21% are even more otimistic and give a time frame of 3-5 years. Almost 20% of respondents are, however, more pessimistic. They believe that Romania needs at least 30 years to become a pro-business environment. Almost 50% of entrepreneurs indicate fiscal issues (regulatory unpredictability, taxation’s complexity and levels of taxes) as being the biggest obstacles in creating and developing a business in Romania. When it comes to the five pillars that support the development of this sector, 62% of respondents believe that the entrepreneurship education and training factor has improved in Romania in the past year. The figure was higher than in 2014 – 58%. Over 40% indicated an improvement in the entrepreneurial culture, 37% noticed a positive development of the assistance provided by organizations specializing in the development of entrepreneurship, and 30% saw a better access to finance. Only 20% believe that regulation and taxation experienced a positive development in 2014, according to the EY study. The entrepreneurs also mentioned five government measures that would support the development of Romanian businesses on a short-term. The measures are: reducing the tax burden and providing tax incentives (45%), reducing bureaucracy and simplifying legislation, especially Tax Code (15%), providing state guarantees for loans, especially for start-ups (8%), improving collaboration and communication between the public and private environment (7%), and the stability of the tax environment (5%). Over 80% of respondents find access to finance difficult or very difficult, down six percentage points from last year’s edition of the study. Romanian entrepreneurs believe the government could take several measures to improve access to finance, such as tax facilities for investments in small companies (26%), providing loan guarantees (20%), and reduced taxation of capital gains (18%). The study also reveals that the fear of failure remains one of the significant barriers in the entrepreneurship approach. 65% of entrepreneurs consider that business failure is penalized by the Romanian society. 35% see business failure as a barrier for future projects, 17% perceive it as a career failure, and 11% believe this indicates a lack of entrepreneurial skills. Only 29% consider business failure a learning opportunity. 369 entrepreneurs answered online for this study, between January 9 and February 24. EY: Most Romanian entrepreneurs prefer to sell than develop More Romanian than US entrepreneurs at EY competition