Some thoughts after the visit of the US Ambassador to Galati and Braila

At the invitation of the National Council for SMEs, the U.S. Ambassador to Romania, HE Hans Klemm, visited Galati and Braila counties to meet entrepreneurs, local authorities, the mass-media and to open an American corner at VA Urechia library. The main goal was to understand the local economic climate. I had the pleasure to tell him about our agenda as young entrepreneurs to have access to a business incubator, then to gain resources to accelerate our businesses and then to internationalise. For the incubation side, I am sure we will manage to build a modern business incubator, which is up to the standards of 2017, as there is European Union funding available. However, for the acceleration part, I asked Mr. Ambassador that some help will be welcome to connect our entrepreneurs with possible American investors. During this phase, the business ideas that are validated by the market, need capital. The final stage comes rather smoothly if the entrepreneur has by his side an investor to access foreign markets.

The most important message that came for the local business environment was about the needs of any investor that would come to the region:

Any investor needs access to qualified human resources in areas like mathematics, engineering, or IT. I say we are not doing badly in this area as we have two big universities that are producing good talent.
Investors also need adequate infrastructure. Here we are not talking only about roads and railways, but also about hospitals, schools, or police. We strongly feel the lack of an express road infrastructure that would connect Galati and Braila to Bucharest, Brasov, Iasi, and Constanta.
Last, investors need governmental stability and transparency. So, laws should not change very often, the authorities should be more open to the business environment (and here I salute the new prevention law that is currently under public debate), and the access to tenders should be nondiscriminatory.