SME investment platform to become operational Tuesday or Wednesday

The IMM Invest platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will become operational early next week, Tuesday or Wednesday, Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said on Sunday.

"The platform will be operational early next week, Tuesday or Wednesday, but rather on Tuesday. I will announce tomorrow [Monday] the exact time when it starts. It is ready, it is tested, I have seen it myself. We will know in real time whether the business identification data I sign up is real or not, to save time, but everything has to be ready on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, anyway in the first three days of next week. It will work and more than that, it will not only work, but it is the best product for SMEs in the last 30 years. I have looked at what has been done so far, I looked at what previous governments did last year and I did not want to come out with such information. (...) The idea is that this is a product that will help many Romanians," Citu told Digi 24 private broadcaster.

He added that when he has the reports from experts regarding the blocking of the platform at the time of its launch on April 17, he will make them public.

"I am not a programmer, but I was told that there were 400,000 accesses, the information was presented by the National Guarantee Fund [FNGCIMM], everything is with the people that know a thing or two about it, and I am waiting for the reports, which I will make public, but there is a huge interest. I can tell you why: this is a product that will help the Romanian industry a lot," said Citu.

The application of the IMM Invest Romania programme was initially launched on April 17, but it was blocked exactly at the time of opening, after 397,000 accesses per minute were received from 132,000 connections.

The programme is designed to allow SMEs significantly affected by the coronavirus crisis to provide liquidity for their current business or for investment by accessing guaranteed funded.