On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Ștefan-Radu Oprea, minister of economy, entrepreneurship and tourism, had a meeting with Andreea Negru, president of the European Patronage of Business Women (PEFA), who was accompanied by a delegation of female entrepreneurs .
During the discussion, topics related to financing programs dedicated to the business environment, with a positive impact for entrepreneurs, were discussed.
More precisely, relevant aspects regarding the structure of this year’s edition of the Woman Entrepreneur program were scored, as well as the details of the grid project and its implementation procedure. “In entrepreneurship, failure can also be a virtue”, declared the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Ștefan-Radu Oprea, at the beginning of the meeting. In this context, the problem of optimizing entrepreneurship courses was addressed, which could benefit from improvement through the integration of digitization, thus contributing to expanding the knowledge of future entrepreneurs.
Furthermore, aspects related to business incubators were also presented, an essential program that provides start-ups with access to infrastructure, mentorship, investors and other forms of support to facilitate their journey from conception to product. During this discussion, the PEFA team proposed to consider the involvement of educational units, pre-school and private school, within the program.
With this proposal in mind, along with the draft grid that establishes the criteria for the online evaluation of funding applications under the Woman Entrepreneur 2024 program, PEFA members suggested the development of a collaboration between the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism and the Ministry of Education.
Andreea Negru, president of PEFA, said:
“We support female entrepreneurship and gender equality as important factors for sustainable economic development. Today, as a credible dialogue partner, PEFA came up with concrete proposals to improve the eligibility criteria and the procedure specific to the Woman Entrepreneur program, in a joint effort with the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, which encourages female entrepreneurs to reach their potential maximum and turn their dreams into reality. We strongly believe that diversity and inclusion are fundamental to business success. The Woman Entrepreneur Program is an example of how, through public-private partnership, we can create a favorable environment in which women entrepreneurs can prosper and contribute significantly to the Romanian economy. We encourage all women entrepreneurs to explore this opportunity.”
Minister Ștefan Radu Oprea emphasized the fact that special attention was paid to supporting gender equality in terms of entrepreneurial culture among women managers in the SME sector and claimed in turn that “the investment indicators related to the Femia Antrepreneur and Start-Up Nation programs are extremely encouraging. A concrete example is represented by the first edition of the Start-Up Nation program, where information from 3 essential data sources was integrated: the Territorial Labor Inspectorate, the Ministry of Finance and the National Trade Registry Office.
In the context of the first edition, the surprising effect was that 91.5% of registered companies maintain their activity even after 5 years. This exceptional result thus exceeds any expectation at an international level. The profitability for the Romanian state stands out, reaching an impressive percentage of 155%. This performance was achieved considering a minimum scenario, with the minimum wage in the economy and a tax of 1% of the turnover”.
PEFA is a member of the National Council of Small and Medium-sized Private Enterprises in Romania, the only nationally representative organization for SMEs.
