BUCHAREST, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian government on Friday adopted the second edition of the Start-Up Nation program, with the online application platform to be opened in the second half of December, announced the government's spokesman Nelu Barbu.
"The main changes made to the second edition, compared to the first edition, refer to the simplification of the program," Barbu said, explaining that it has now been built on the experience gained with the Start-Up Nation 2017, an increase in transparency, a greater focus on the areas that have the most attention from the state, namely, production, services, creative industries and trade, and more attention to business development in those areas of the country with a lower number of small and medium enterprises.
The new edition provides non-reimbursable aid of up to 200,000 lei (48,800 U.S. dollars) to maximum 10,000 start-ups. The aid is eligible to cover the 100 percent of the costs of the business.
The authorities will pay 30 percent of the amounts granted to companies in advance in order to speed up investment and job creation.
The companies eligible under Start-Up Nation 2018 Program are those set up after January 30, 2017, active in the production, creative industries, services and commerce industries.
In order to participate in the program, companies must create at least one full-time job for an indefinite period and maintain their employment for at least two years after the completion of the project implementation.
The main goal of the program is to stimulate the creation of new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to improve the start-ups' economic performance and to facilitate their access to financing. The program will primarily support IT programming, production, creative industries, services and trade activities.
"Over 8,000 new businesses were set up and more than 20,000 jobs were created at its first edition in 2017. These results encourage us to continue this program," Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told the opening of the Executive's meeting earlier on the day before the cabinet adopted the the new edition of the program.
