Romanian SMEs that trade internationally more likely to create jobs

Romanian SMEs that trade internationally are more confident and more likely to create jobs, a study by Facebook, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank shows.

The study, titled Future of Business, shows that 50 percent of Romanian SMEs that trade internationally are positive about their current business state, compared to 43 percent of non-traders. A share of 70 percent of traders are positive about their future business outlook, compared to 62 percent of non-traders.

More traders than non-traders (26 percent vs. 14 percent) said they have created jobs in the past 6 months and are planning to create jobs in the next 6 months (49 percent compared to 32 percent).

For exporting SMEs, trade is at the core of their business models and success: Among exporting SMEs, 3 in 10 (35 percent) report that more than 25 percent of their revenue comes from international trade.

Exporters rely on online tools to trade internationally: Nearly half of exporting SMEs (43 percent) report that more than 75 percent of their international sales depend on online tools.

SMEs attribute growth – in revenue, resources, and employees – to their use of online tools to trade internationally: 59 percent of exporters agree that using online tools for selling internationally has increased their revenue.

However, international trade is a challenge to SMEs, and only a minority of SMEs trade internationally (25 percent). Furthermore, more than half of exporters (55 percent) identified “selling to foreign countries” as a challenge.