Support to SMEs for Investment in Circular Bio-based Economy
About this good practice
During the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of SMEs encountered difficulties due to the disruption of supply chains, restrictions included in the sanitary protection measures limiting the mobility/ availability of staff and/or customers, which led to drastic reductions of revenues and/ or production capacity.
The IMM INVEST programme aims to support SMEs to recover from the crisis and avoid recession by facilitating access to funding for investment in production capacities and or improving environmental standards. Biogas plants and recycling stations are supported by the programme.
The state guarantees 90% of the budget needed for the investment as loan and covers all interests and bank fees, while 10% of the budget is provided as a grant.
All Romanian SMEs are eligible, including start-ups. The maximum allowed budget is 2 million Euros for investments and 1 million Euros for liquidities.
Applications are managed through an online platform https://www.imminvest.ro/
Resources needed
The budget for 2022 is 153.36 million Euros in state aid and 1 billion Euros in guaranteed loans
Evidence of success
The current programme is a follow-up to the IMM INVEST programme, which was operational for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). 60,000 guarantees were granted to SMEs, amounting to loans of 33 billion RON (around 6.68 billion Euros). It is estimated that 1 million jobs were saved by the programme.
Potential for learning or transfer
SMEs usually have limited funds to invest in improving their environmental performance, so this type of funding could give a real boost in developing the circular bio-based economy.
Further information
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Good practice owner
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