Export promotion must move from typical fairs and exhibitions to online area

The President of the National Council of Small and Medium-sized Private Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), Florin Jianu, stated on Thursday that the Export Promotion Program should move from the classic fairs, exhibitions, to the online area, and in terms of supporting domestic tourism, "we can talk about a Romanian brand for attracting tourists".

"I think that the future export program must move from the typical fairs, exhibitions, economic missions, to more modern things, to the online area, to the digitalization area. If we also talk about supporting domestic tourism, why not talk about a Romanian brand that we should try to support for export to attract tourists. Romania is a safe country, with very few cases of COVID-19, it can also be an extremely interesting tourist destination. I think we basically need to reinvent things. Stop doing things as we knew from before. Obviously for everyone in their right mind, one can't mount fairs and exhibitions during this period or in the next half year, but it's a shame about the next program not to reinvent ourselves, all of us," mentioned Florin Jianu in the video-conference "VorbIMM about vouchers and micro-grants for SMEs", organized by CNIPMMR.

The Minister of the Economy, Energy and Business Environment, Virgil Popescu, underlined that the Export Promotion Program and the Internationalization Program for Small and Medium Enterprises will continue.

"I have asked my colleague, Mr. Secretary of State Rogojinaru, to conduct an analysis in the last two-three-four years of the export program, to see the efficiency of this program, because I would like to see that those companies that participate in fairs and exhibitions have also exported, that is their turnover has increased, at least there is a slight upward trend following the participation in export fairs. Believe me I know what export programs mean. From 2013-2014 I was secretary of state on foreign trade, I coordinated the export council as co-president and I kind of know what's going on there. As long as I'm a minister I won't allow public money to be spent for tourist purposes because I have to admit, there are still such practices That is why I want efficiency on the export program and on the SMEs' internationalization program because I want the boost of the Romanian export and the participation of the Romanian companies, of the small and medium enterprises in the international circuit," mentioned Virgil Popescu