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The Government will start, in the first part of May, to sign the contracts with the first 200 companies that have already been checked within the Start-up Nation 2018 programme, Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship Minister Stefan-Radu Oprea stated on Thursday at the Victoria Palace.
"The current situation of the Start-up Nation 2018: 6,688 projects and business plans have already been checked, 5,302 projects have been accepted so far, 458 rejected and 928 need clarifications. The good news is that for those who applied for Start-up Nation, 2018 edition, the 33,514 submitted projects, is that, as of May, we will sign the contracts. Thus, we will sign the contracts with the first 200, that were checked in the first week. As of May, we start signing the contracts," Business Minister Oprea stated.
Stefan-Radu Oprea argued that the Government has the necessary money for the first part of the Start-up Nation programme and estimated that the high need for cash payments will be coming towards the end of the year.
He denied the existence of a a liquidity crisis at government level.
"It is an exaggerated interpretation with this liquidity crisis. Waste is never good. Any responsible Finance Minister should make such a call - and I think that Minister Eugen Teodorovici has done very well - the idea of spending the public money with responsibility," Stefan-Radu Oprea said.
The Business Environment Minister brought to mind that, within the Start-up Nation 2018 programme, over 200 submitted business plans come from Romanians who previously worked abroad.
According to the Business Environment Ministry data, most of the projects enrolled in the Start-up Nation 2018 programme were registered in the Timis County - 2014 business plans, Bihor - 1753 projects and Prahova - 1673 projects. At the opposite end, the smallest number of projects were registered in the counties Covasna - 171, Ilfov - 207 and Cluj - 240.
Compared to 2017, there were 14,217 more projects registered in the Start-up Nation 2018 programme. The largest increase is recorded in Bistrita-Nasaud, where 2021 projects were registered with 1021 more projects than in 2017, in Bihor were registered 106 more business plans against 2017, whereas in Constanta 781 projects more than in 2017.
The Start-up Nation 2018 programme is intended for companies set up after 30 January 2017 that operate in production, creative industries, services and trade. In order to qualify for the program the companies must create at least one full-time job for an indefinite period and maintain the position filled for at least two years after the completion of the project's implementation.
