Romania's Government resumed the disbursement of working capital grants to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which had been blocked in recent months, economy minister Claudiu Nasui announced, News.ro reported.

So far, the Economy Ministry has disbursed some 4,500 out of the 22,000 grants under this schema, which has a budget of EUR 765 mln (fully financed from the European Union's budget).

Furthermore, minister Nasui announced that he signed an agreement with the European projects minister Cristian Ghinea for another tranche of EUR 209 mln for this scheme, on top of the EUR 265 mln that the Economy Ministry had at its disposal.

Thus, it now has EUR 474 mln for payments, and another EUR 291 mln will be transferred in the future for the successful financing of the scheme.

The disbursement of working capital grants was suspended because of the changes in the structure of the Ministry of Economy and Energy (previously) that split into the Ministry of Economy (managed by Clausiu Nasui) and Ministry of Energy (headed by Virgil Popescu). 

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andrei@romania-insider.com