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The Start-Up Nation Programme will have a budget worth two billion lei as of this year, enough to finance 10,000 projects, and will commence as soon as most payments in respect to last year's edition are carried out, Radu Oprea, Minister for Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship, inform Agerpres.
"As many as 1,300 payments from last year's programme have been made so far. All those who are waiting with payment requests or have not submitted them yet, were called by the regional agencies so as to be counseled and directed to do it as soon as possible and see what obstacles they might encounter. There is money and it is waiting for them, it is in the accounts of the banks and of the agencies," the minister said.
According to him, the Ministry will analyse the weak points of the implementation process, so as to not to repeat them at the new edition.
"Thus we will come with a guide of good practice, for the procedure to be simplified and unified. We have opted for the idea of success stories that can set an example for other potential applicants this year. For the rest, conditions stay the same, 200,000 lei are granted for each project, for 10,000 firms," Oprea said.
He avoided giving an exact deadline for the start of the 2018 programme, specifying that it depends on the speed of the payments to last year's applicants.
Through the Start-Up Nation programme, a newly set up firm receives financing of up to 200,000 lei, which can represent 100 percent of the project's value. In the 2017 session, there were around 8,600 winning business plans.
