Young Romanians: Entrepreneurs in their Home Country?

As outward migration and brain drain reach record numbers in Romania, we explore the pull factors that might contribute to a reversal. This paper presents the findings of the first large scale survey on the entrepreneurial intentions of the Romanian Diaspora. We have specifically targeted the category of graduates and young professionals as having the highest flexibility to relocate. The findings of our survey show a large inclination to start a business venture in the home country (79%). The main field in which the young Romanian Diaspora would be interested to develop an entrepreneurial project is IT&C (35.67%). We compare those findings with those from a domestic survey targeting the same age group, and find little differences in preferences, suggesting that country of residence is not a significant differentiating factor in the decision to start a business. The main perceived impediment for entrepreneurship in Romania is still excessive bureaucracy (76.03%). The reverse migration patterns are important for any developing economy in the world, as the case of Romania shows, where the return of the 200,000 Romanians (5%) could (gradually) contribute on the medium term with more than 11.5 billion euro to the country’s GDP.