SMEs should also receive grants through PNRR, not only financial instruments

Bucharest, May 14 /Agerpres/ - Small and medium-sized enterprises should benefit from grants from the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR), as is happening in the rest of the European countries, not only from financial instruments, said, on Friday, Florin Jianu, the head of the National Council for Small and Medium-sized Private Enterprises (CNIPMMR), in a press conference. "I am referring to the fact that Romania desires to grant only financial instruments, and countries with a more developed economic environment, such as Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, they have a mix between issuing grants and issuing financial instruments," said Jianu. He gave the example of the tourism domain, where companies nearly shuttered. "It's as if you're barely staying afloat and somebody comes, gives you a boulder and tells you 'Develop! Swim! Keep moving your arms!'. No, we need grants for the Romanian economy, because this PNRR is in fact a plan of recovery and resilience. How can you make an economic recovery only through financial instruments?" the SME representative asked. If all the other countries did so, than so should Romania, he believes. On Thursday, Cristian Ghinea, Minister of European Investments and Projects, said that SMEs will benefit from a risk capital instrument worth half a billion euro through the PNRR, by way of an agreement signed with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)