CONTEXT:

• After an extremely tense election year, in which the state postponed its own reform and deepened its deficits, 2025 does not look much calmer for the economy.
• For small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, the multiple sources of uncertainty of 2024 are prolonged or even exacerbated this year, when not even the political situation could stabilize, following a new round of elections.
• With huge deficits to cover in public finances, the Romanian business environment is preparing to pay the bill for budgetary waste again.
• Small entrepreneurs are expecting new tightening of taxation, after having already faced a first wave of increased taxes and duties last year.
• The lowering of the threshold for micro-enterprises and the increase in taxes for them, the increase in income and property taxes, as well as VAT for certain sectors, the elimination of past tax incentives are just some of the measures with a negative impact on SMEs resulting from what the state understood to mean a “tax reform”.
• Beyond the tax burden, small entrepreneurs must also face a long period of price increases in energy, fuel, food and bank financing. All this, against a background of economic slowdown and consumption moderation, in which additional dark clouds are brought by the persistence of geopolitical tensions and the neighboring war that continues to affect the local economy.
• In the midst of multiple crises, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are once again caught with few safety nets, with capitalization problems and difficulties in implementing coherent and predictable business plans.
• Regardless of the negative external developments, which they cannot control, SMEs must find solutions to move their businesses forward and grow them, managing to invest to keep up with technology, to cope with wage pressures and the need to attract, train and retain competent employees.
• Securing financing remains a major challenge to support working capital and investments, including for the tech sector, where the problems that have arisen internationally have somewhat dampened investor enthusiasm.
• European financing is, once again, the place where the business environment can find development opportunities in complicated times. The beginning of 2025 came with significant allocations of over 2 billion euros in the form of non-repayable funds for investments in start-ups, as well as in the fields of technology, innovation and AI, green energy, agriculture, tourism.
• No less than 9 financing programs were brought to the market in the first quarter, from “Start-up Nation”, to Regional Programs designed to stimulate SME investments or the “Modernization Fund”, with large allocations for investments in renewable energy. Interest in these remained high, as many were postponed from the end of last year to this beginning of the year.
• In an environment full of pressure, entrepreneurs can do more than survive the crisis. They can find those strategies and solutions that help them capitalize on opportunities for innovation, growth, internationalization and hope that they can rely on support from other institutional, financial or administrative areas.

DISCUSSION TOPICS:

• Forecasts for new tax measures that may affect small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Budgetary adjustments and pressure on the business environment;
• The impact of tax measures already adopted (last year’s and the Trenuleț Ordinance);
• Solutions that can help entrepreneurs cope with tax changes;
• The effect of regulations and legislative changes targeting SMEs. Contested measures / expected reforms;
• The picture of the economic situation in the SME sector. Sectoral perspectives;
• The impact of the war in Ukraine. Perspectives after the end of the conflict and in case of its extension;
• The most suitable financing solutions, including for digitalization;
• Banks and SMEs: what products are available for small entrepreneurs, which loans suit the different needs of the company, what solutions exist when repayment problems arise.
• How has the relationship of SME clients with banks changed in recent years?
• Challenges for government guarantee programs. What is going well, where are the gaps and what improvements are needed?
• Outlook for the non-performing loan rate in the context of a difficult period for entrepreneurs. Solutions for repayment problems.
• The situation of state support programs. Where are adjustments and corrections needed for the programs to be effective?
• European funding: How can delays be recovered? Which programs have worked best and which less well for SMEs?
• Problems of social dialogue between the state and entrepreneurs, consulted very rarely, late or not at all in legislative amendments targeting them.
• The risk of aggravating financial blockages, of payments received late, in the increasingly complicated economic context;
• Challenges for SMEs on the labor market, in finding and retaining employees. Wage pressures. Training and specialization needs;
• Successful examples among SMEs, how they coped with periods of crisis;
• Innovations and trends in technology that change local entrepreneurship;
• How SMEs cope with technological challenges and the need for rapid digitalization;
• Solutions for business internationalization. The chances of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to enter foreign markets;
• The perspective of investors (funds, angel investors, etc.) involved in the SME sector. How are valuations changing during this period?
• Solutions for the development of the start-up ecosystem;
• Challenges for entrepreneurial education.

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