The budget of the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism for 2026 was approved on Tuesday by the Budget and Finance Committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with 36 votes in favor and 11 against.
"Of these almost four billion commitment credits from the Ministry's budget, less budgetary credits, from the ministry's budget over 1.4 billion lei means non-reimbursable funds, European funds and external funds, which must be attracted and spent this year, of course the majority from the PNRR. In terms of mineral resources, this year we intend to invest in better knowledge of the available resources and to manage them more responsibly. We have allocated additional amounts for the national geological program and for the closure and ecological reconstruction works of mining objectives", declared the Minister of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Ambrozie-Irineu Darău.
Regarding SMEs, the minister reiterated that entrepreneurship support programs will be continued, with improvements in implementation throughout the year. Thus, the fourth edition of the Start-Up Nation program will be launched, funding will be provided, for the first time, for the Woman Entrepreneur program, and the development of innovation infrastructure will be launched by financing 150 technology incubators in 2026 and 2027.
On the tourism side, the priority is to promote Romania as an attractive destination and make investments in the development of tourist attractions.
"That is why we have allocated a larger amount, which I consider insufficient, for promoting the destination of Romania. Until now, we had somewhere around 2.2 million euros in budget execution on this chapter and approximately 4.5 million euros have been allocated, but you will see a much larger amount on commitment credits. To the extent that we manage to change Romania's presence at international fairs for the better and use other means of promoting Romanian tourism, we will also resort to contracting on those commitment credits and we will ask for more money for rectification. It is an important subject that I insist on, because, if we compare ourselves with other countries in terms of investments in tourism promotion, we are incomparably lower. Without investing a more substantial amount here, Romanian tourism will suffer and incoming tourism will continue to be on a downward curve," explained Darau.
He added that the ministry is implementing support programs to increase the competitiveness of industrial products and develop marketing activities, with increased funding for microindustrialization and several other support schemes.
"Most of the PNRR funds are in digitalization. Most of the projects are implemented by RDA or suppliers. I would mention the digitalization in villages through the digi countrys program?/(...). The objective is to have a modern and secure state with many more digitalized public services and projects on 5G technology, artificial intelligence, cyber protection, critical infrastructures. The objective is to attract the maximum from the available PNRR funds, for which we still have five months to implement," the minister also said.
In the defense sector, Darău signaled that there is a "drastic" decrease in the amount compared to last year, as a result of the renunciation of capital increases in state-owned companies, subsidiaries of ROMARM.
The Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism has allocated budget credits of 3.68 million lei (+59.4% compared to the 2025 execution) and commitment credits of 3.96 billion lei (+79.53%) to the project.
Last Thursday, the government adopted the draft budget for 2026, built on economic growth of 1%, a budget deficit estimated at 127.7 billion lei, representing 6.2% of GDP, and inflation forecast at an average annual rate of 6.5%.
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