Friday, May 17, a meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the SME Employer Association took place, attended by prominent figures such as the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism, Radu Oprea, and the President of the National Council of Private Small and Medium Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), Florin Jianu, along with bank directors from Banca Transilvania and BCR, county authorities, and private sector representatives. On this occasion, facilities designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were discussed.<\/p>\n
On this occasion, the IMM Invest Plus state aid scheme, approved by GEO on March 18, 2024, to support the working capital of SMEs affected by the war in Ukraine, was also discussed.<\/p>\n
Subsidized interest loans with 90% guarantees from the National Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs (FNGCIMM) are granted. In fact, the amounts granted are up to five times smaller than the requests, and the “first-come, first-served” criterion has generated fierce competition for the extremely limited funds allocated to banks.<\/p>\n
One of the major issues highlighted was that companies affected by the war in Ukraine are disadvantaged, as banks grant loans based on the financial scoring of the applicants. Thus, those receiving financial support are often those with the best financial performance indicators\u2014meaning those who do not need it, not those truly affected by the crisis. This contradicts the declared purpose of the emergency ordinance.<\/p>\n
Adrian Voican, Vice President of ANAT, emphasized that travel agencies, already hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, challenges in Israel, inflation, and difficult access to financing, cannot benefit from the state aid scheme due to the imposed financial criteria. He also reminded that the HORECA 2 program, although legislated, was not implemented due to governmental disagreements, particularly between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism.<\/p>\n
ANAT, together with other tourism associations, requests an increase in funds for this aid scheme so that they reach the companies that need them most. It is necessary for the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism, the National Council of Private Small and Medium Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), the National Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs (FNGCIMM), employer federations, the Federation of Romanian Tourism Employers (FPTR), the Federation of Hospitality Industry Employers Romania (FPIOR), affiliated banks, and the Ministry of Finance, along with the Prime Minister, to make every effort to ensure that funds reach those truly affected.<\/p>\n
What is the main issue with the IMM Invest Plus scheme?<\/strong><\/p>\n The primary issue is that demand exceeds available funds by five times, and banks prioritize companies with high financial scores rather than those most affected by current crises.<\/p>\n Why is the tourism sector struggling to access these funds?<\/strong><\/p>\n Tourism businesses are often disqualified by strict financial scoring criteria despite being hit by multiple crises, including the pandemic and regional conflicts.<\/p>\n What does ANAT propose to solve the funding gap?<\/strong><\/p>\n ANAT and tourism associations are calling for a significant supplement of funds and a revision of allocation criteria to ensure aid reaches the most vulnerable businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday, May 17, a meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the SME Employer Association took place, attended by prominent figures such as the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism, Radu Oprea, and the President of the National Council of Private Small and Medium Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), Florin Jianu, along with bank directors from Banca…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":91670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2858],"tags":[3186],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-114781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-anat-en"],"article_style_override":"on","post-style":"style2","post_via":"","post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/turism-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114781"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=114781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}