Publicat pe 21/10/2019

Bucharest, October 21^st, 2019: The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), Mr. Mihai Daraban, attended today, October 21^st, the conference dedicated to the Smart Start USA program, a project that aims to finance and facilitate the annual access of more than 10,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs from Romania to the market in the United States of America.

 
The Smart Start USA program aims to create the first ecosystem in Romania dedicated to increasing the export and internationalization of companies with Romanian capital, with priority access on the United States market. Over 1000 bank branches are involved in the implementation of the program, which will allow any company to benefit from the program and all its facilities, regardless of the city in which they are located.

 
“For the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, the economic relations with the United States of America are a priority from many points of view. Leaving aside the strategic partnership with the USA, a partnership strongly promoted by CCIR in the domestic business environment, we are very interested in the internationalization of the Romanian business. Currently, we are captive of the European Union market and unfortunately, less present in other markets of the world. To attract US investors, we need to be very careful about their profile, namely the fact that they are primarily interested in capital market investments. In the US, financing is made 80% of the stock market and only 20% of the banking system. However, the percentages are reversed when we talk about the European Union. In Romania, the stock market is rather poorly capitalized and less attractive for American investors, but we must admit that we are the first generation of businessmen, and the growth potential is very high”, said Mr. Mihai Daraban.

“Together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, we managed to bring the largest delegation of Romanian entrepreneurs in history to the United States of America, with over 40 companies being present overseas at meetings with representatives of the American business environment. This denotes that when there are desire and involvement, special things can be done in any field of activity. As a result of the experience gained so far, this year the Smart Start USA program welcomes the Romanian entrepreneurs with a modernized and efficient web interface to provide the highest quality services. Also, a permanent office dedicated to the program will be opened, so that every interested entrepreneur can have access to information directly”, said Ilan Laufer, the initiator of Smart Start USA.

 

Background
The Smart Start USA project provides support for education and entrepreneurship development for more than 10,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs each year, who will have access to a wide range of dedicated financial instruments as well as personalized services.

Smart Start USA follows the development of the priority economic sectors for the Romanian export, the increase of the number of Romanian capital companies involved in the export, the increase of the number of Romanian capital companies that will expand on the foreign markets, the creation of new jobs in the economy directly and indirectly through stimulating production and export, as well as stimulating financial banking markets.

 

The project will focus on the following economic segments: IT, cars, real estate market, pharmaceutical, and medical market, furniture and crafts, tourism, agriculture, financial investments.