INFLUENCE OF PROJECTS FINANCED BY THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAM ON THE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF COMPANIES

Our research focuses on analyzing the medium and long-term evolution of the economic performance of companies that have benefited from grants under the Regional Operational Program implemented in the Central Region, Romania, in the financial programming period 2007-2013 (including the additional implementation period program 2014-2015). The aim of the paper is to identify the evolution trends of the economic performances obtained by the analyzed companies during the project implementation period (period extended with the sustainability period of the projects), respectively in the following period, when these companies were no longer monitored by representatives of the funding program. For a unitary analysis, there was chosen to be included in the analysis, the companies that implemented projects with non-reimbursable financing within - Sustainable development and tourism promotion, Major field of intervention 5.2 - Creation, development, modernization of tourism infrastructure for capitalizing on natural resources and increasing the quality of tourism services in the Central Region. Particular attention was also paid to the indicators pursued by the program, including the evolution of the number of newly created jobs following the sustainability.