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"Diaspora Start-up" begins its registrations to encourage Romanians abroad to start business in home country
The Ministry of European Funds and the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE), through the Department for Relations with Romanians Abroad (DPRRP), opened on Wednesday the registrations for the "Diaspora Start-up" Program, which has an allocation worth 30 million Euros from the Human Capital Operational Programme, a release of the MAE informs.
In the first stage, the administrators of the entrepreneur scheme are invited to lodge the project proposals worth 5 million Euros through which they commit to prepare future entrepreneurs and to grant them subsidies in order to launch businesses in the country.
According to the release, the entities which join the partnership for the creation of administrators for the entrepreneur scheme can be: private or public authorized suppliers of the Continuous Professional Training; unions and employers' associations; members of the Sectoral Committees and Sectoral Committees with legal personality; local public administration authorities (territorial-administrative units); professional associations; chambers of commerce and industry; NGOs; universities; Economy, Trade and Business Environment Ministry and subordinated/coordinated institutions/agencies/organizations; partnerships between the categories mentioned above.
In the second stage, Romanian citizens who want to setup a company can access funds with a maximum value of 40,000 Euros and can attend e-learning type entrepreneur training programs, through the administrators of the entrepreneur scheme.
The Romanian citizens with minimum age of 18 year are eligible, but they must prove their residence or domicile abroad of minimum 12 months if they want to establish a business in the country.
The MAE-DPRRP takes into account the facilitation of the contract between the entities in Romania that want to collaborate with organizations of Romanians abroad, in order to establish partnerships so they can form administrators for the entrepreneur scheme. The Diaspora's organizations interested by this program are invited to send their contact info, until October 30, at the following email address diaspora@mae.ro, in order to be included in a list which will be put at the disposal of the entities in Romania by publishing it on the DPRRP and the MFE website.
The "Diaspora Start-up" guide was launched in a public consultation on 8 September. Its content reflects the propositions agreed following the suggestions received from the potential beneficiaries and from the interested public, regarding the activities and the eligible expenses, partnership and focus group.
The entrepreneur scheme plans to create opportunities of returning to Romania for the citizens settled abroad and to capitalize on the abilities gained by them (entrepreneurial and/or professional), through opening a business in the country.
The activities that encourage entrepreneurship are considered eligible, also considered eligible are the activities that target the creation of non-agricultural companies in the urban area. The current call will be dedicated to all the development regions in Romania, except for the Bucuresti- Ilfov County area.