Over 3,500 Romanians living abroad are willing to come home and open a business

Over 3,500 Romanians are willing to come back home and open a business through Diaspora Stat-up program, that will provide them with non-reimbursable European funds. Two weeks before closing entries, Ro-Win announces the first figures of the project that is part of the Diaspora Start-up grant program. The latest entries can be made by July 14 at www.ro-win.ro.

More than 3,500 Romanians from the diaspora were interested in starting a business in the country. Although returning to Romania is not compulsory, most people would like to return for at least a few years.

Most enrolled have lived in the UK for at least 1 year and exceed 25 percent of the total. Brexit is a growing concern for Romanian migrants in the UK, so it attracts the opportunity to start a business with non-reimbursable funds from the European Union.

Other countries with large percentages of entries are Germany and Italy (approximately 12 percent each).

As far as age is concerned, 50 percent of those enrolled are between 26 and 35 years of age. The 26-30 years segment represents 26 percent of the total, while 24 percent of the Romanians are between 31 and 35 years old. Only 8 percent of those enrolled are over 45 years old. Almost two-thirds of women enrolled are women, while only 37 percent are men.

In a segmentation by region, 36 percent of those enrolled in the program come from Moldova, followed by Transylvania. The following regions are Muntenia (14 percent), Oltenia (9 percent), Banat (7 percent), Crişana (6 percent), Maramureş (6 percent) and Dobrogea (5 percent). Iasi is the city where most of the Ro-Win entrepreneurs come from, with 7 percent of the total. The following cities are Bacau (3.5 percent), Timisoara (3.2 percent), Galati (2.5 percent) and Constanta (2.3 percent). In total, 57 percent of the enrolled people come from urban areas and only 43 percent from rural areas.

Over 70 percent of Romanians in the diaspora who want to start a business in Romania have higher education. 62 percent graduated from a faculty, 10 percent had a masters degree and only 1 percent had a doctoral degree.

The main areas where Romanians in the diaspora would like to start a business are HORECA (12 percent), IT (11 percent) and services (11 percent). Other areas of interest are trade (9 percent), creative activities (8 percent), goods (7 percent), engineering (6 percent) and consultancy services (6 percent). Only 4 percent of those enrolled would like to start a business related to tourism and only 2 percent in sports.

Entries to the Ro-Win program are open until July 14, 2018, during which Romanians in the diaspora can apply to turn their business idea into reality. In order to obtain funding of up to EUR 1,260,000 available through the program, applicants have to go through an online entrepreneurial course, offered free of charge by Ro-Win. At the end of this course, applicants will develop a business plan. Currently, only 10 percent of those enrolled have completed this entrepreneurship course and some 200 are actively working on the business plan.

“We think entrepreneurship is not about idea and intent but about execution. That is why we try to encourage all those interested to join and follow the necessary steps, the Ro-Win team being prepared to support them throughout the program,” says Mihai Zant, Managing Partner Reviro.

All graduates will be able to obtain a non-reimbursable European Diaspora Start-up grant. Following the selection of business plans and interviews, 36 of the course graduates will receive EUR 35,000 in grants, plus mentoring and counseling services worth more than 10,000 euros.

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