Entrepreneurs speak out: Romania to offer a friendly business environment in up to 10 years

34 percent of the Romanian entrepreneurs who answered the questionnaire for EY’s Entrepreneurs speak out – Romanian Entrepreneurship Barometer 2015 expect Romania to provide a friendly environment for the development of business in a medium-term horizon (5-10 years), while 21 percent of them expect this to happen in a short time horizon (3-5 years).

If 55 percent of the entrepreneurs indicate a horizon of up to 10 years, 19 percent of the entrepreneurs are more pessimistic. The latter consider that Romania needs at least 30 years to become a pro-business environment.

Almost 50 percent of the respondents indicate fiscal issues such as regulation unpredictability, fiscality complexity and tax level, as representing the biggest obstacle in creating and developing a business in Romania.

Same as in the previous edition of the study, out of the five pillars that support the development of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial education and training represents the only factor perceived by most entrepreneurs as having a positive evolution: 62 percent of the entrepreneurs believe that this factor has improved in Romania in over the past year, compared to 58 percent in the 2014 edition.

Romanian entrepreneurs also consider that the top 5 governmental measures to support Romanian short-term business development are reducing the tax burden and providing tax incentives (45 percent), reducing bureaucracy and simplifying legislation, especially the Tax Code (15 percent), providing State guarantees for loans, especially for start-ups (8 percent), improving collaboration and communication between the public environment and the private one (7 percent) and tax environment stability (5 percent).

Also, 82 percent of the respondents consider the access to financing to be difficult or very difficult, down 6 percent against the previous edition of the barometer.

The study “Entrepreneurs speak out – Romanian Entrepreneurship Barometer”, now in its third edition, is an annual barometer conducted by EY Romania, which measures Romanian entrepreneurs’ perceptions on five fundamental pillars for the development of entrepreneurship: access to financing, regulation and taxation, entrepreneurial culture, education and coordinated support provided by associations specialized in supporting entrepreneurship. For this edition 369 entrepreneurs and businessmen in Romania answered the questionnaire, between January 9 and February 24, 2015.