Objectives as Vicepresident of the National Council of SMEs from Romania

Probably the most important volunteer job that I have at the moment is Vicepresident of the National Council of SMEs from Romania. The member companies have together over 650,000 employees and a total return of over EUR 25 billion, that is 15% of the Romanian GDP. During my mandate I hope to achieve the following objectives and projects:

• Business incubators established in partnership with universities that are conducting qualitative research. The goal is to transform that research in business ideas and launch new start-ups.
• I want to develop the model incubation-fast growth-internationalization through strategic partnerships in regions like the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
• Researching and proposing a special funding line for the Romanian business incubators. What we have so far, the small grants from the Ministry of Economy and POCU funding schemes, are not efficient.
• We need a so called “law of the first control” whereby the public institutions that are checking the activities of a company, should issue a warn and not a fine at the first control they are conducting.
• We need to get rid of or simplify the form 088 that we have to fill in and submit in order to be allowed to deduct VAT.
• We should get rid of the so called “artificial conditions” from the funding lines for start-ups. For example, two companies that share the same address, are not allowed to receive funding for projects in rural areas.
• The companies that are awarded grants, should be able to conduct and submit evaluations of the project officers designated by the donor institutions to check their project status.