Scaling Up Romania: A Policymaker's Toolkit
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Romania has a variety of challenges and shortcomings in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. It ranks poorly across various indices related to innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital entrepreneurship, indicating deficiencies in the ecosystem supporting startups and high-growth firms. Key issues include low investment in R&D, inadequate intellectual property protection, and limited access to financing, especially for early-stage ventures. The country’s regulatory environment is cumbersome, hindering entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, there is a disconnect in translating a high number of STEM graduates into skilled R&D personnel within businesses. Recommendations focus on policy reforms to enhance the functionality of support instruments, improve regulations, attract talent through startup visas, and bolster entrepreneurial education and digital economy initiatives. Significant financial investments are proposed to address these gaps and stimulate a more robust entrepreneurial ecosystem in Romania.
Cruz, Marcio, Natasha Kapil, Pablo Andres Astudillo Estevez, Christopher Haley, Zoe Cordelia Lu, and Arslan Can. 2022. “Starting Up Romania: Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Diagnostic.” Washington, DC: World Bank. https://hdl.handle.net/10986/37564.
