European project “WINGATE” to support women entrepreneurs in Romania

The WINGATE project – “Together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe”, carried out with Norwegian funds, aims to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in Romania and in the other partner countries in the project: Hungary, Serbia, Moldova, and Norway, according to a release from the National Association of Entrepreneurs (ANAA).

The project is transnational and involves exchanges of experience between the participating countries in order to develop a platform to encourage women to become actors in the economy.

“Entrepreneurship is an essential vector of growth and jobs: it creates new businesses and jobs, opens new markets and stimulates new skills and abilities,” said Cristina Chiriac, president of ANAA. Almost 40% of the associates of companies active today in Romania are women. Businesswomen are increasingly visible in the rankings of success. Their contributions are highly valued in all fields, from education and health, to civic activities, culture, entertainment, sports, or politics.

“Global studies show that there is a discrepancy between the current skills of employees and the needs of employers generated by new technologies. Digital technologies, innovation and artificial intelligence are the new challenges for entrepreneurs, and companies need to adopt the digital technologies needed to reinvent their business models in order to be competitive in these times of crisis ”. In this sense, she believes that there is a need to “create a fiscal framework that stimulates the development of the digital economy, the establishment of virtual headquarters, expanding the network of venture capital investment funds and easing the conditions of participation of start-ups in public projects. have as object the development of useful applications on public platforms. These are some concrete measures to help build a business environment based on technological innovation and access to digital solutions,” said Nicoleta Munteanu, vice president of CONAF.

Although statistics show that the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the businesses owned by women around the world, 87% of them stated that they felt a strong negative impact, however, according to the same studies, women have a much higher degree of adaptability to changes.