The Agency for Rural Investment Financing (AFIR) is celebrating its 23rd anniversary since its establishment, during which it has managed European funds for agriculture and rural development in Romania. Starting with the implementation of the Pre-accession Program, SAPARD, continuing with the National Rural Development Program in the two financial programming periods, 2007 - 2013 and 2014 - 2020, and currently implementing the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy for the 2023 - 2027 period (PS PAC 2023 - 2027), AFIR has maintained a standard of excellence in managing European funds.

"We are celebrating a significant moment in the history of the Agency, reaching its 23rd anniversary. It is a moment of reflection, gratitude, and commitment. Over the past two decades, AFIR has been at the forefront of encouraging rural development, supporting farmers, and promoting sustainable investments in rural areas. We have witnessed remarkable progress, from the modernization of agricultural infrastructure to supporting rural communities with financial resources.

As we look back on our achievements, we must recognize the dedication of the AFIR team over the years, the unwavering support of our partners, and the openness of rural communities. Together, we have turned challenges into opportunities, and rural areas into centers of development and prosperity.

Our core values of integrity, professionalism, and dedication remain the guiding principles for everything we do, and they have been fundamental convictions that have led to our success over time," said George CHIRIȚĂ, Director General of the Agency for Rural Investment Financing.

Through the three funding programs (SAPARD, PNDR 2023, PNDR 2020), the Agency has concluded 181,890 funding contracts with farmers, entrepreneurs, and public authorities in rural areas for investment development, with a total value exceeding €14.3 billion. The value of payments made by AFIR amounts to €20.1 billion, in the form of non-refundable funds for investment projects and for compensatory payments related to environmental and climate measures.

AFIR's achievements, supported by concrete figures and data, would not have been possible without a constant focus on procedural simplification, shifting administrative efforts from beneficiaries to the institution, creating an efficient framework (mechanisms, workflows, and online systems with the best cost-effectiveness and time-performance ratio) for receiving and evaluating applications for non-refundable funding allocated to Romania by the European Union.

In this regard, AFIR has consistently implemented actions to reduce bureaucracy to support beneficiaries of investments funded through the National Rural Development Program (PNDR). Since 2015, when the implementation of the PNDR 2014 - 2020 began, the Agency has increasingly digitized document flows (online submission of funding applications, payment claims, online procurement, use of electronic signatures, verification of cost reasonableness using the Reference Price Database, open data for implemented projects, etc.) to make it as easy as possible for our beneficiaries to access funding.

Furthermore, AFIR has entered into several collaboration protocols aimed at accessing the databases of several institutions (APIA, ANAF, ANCPI, MAI, ONRC, Competition Council, etc.), allowing us to obtain certain documents ourselves without requesting them from our beneficiaries.

Now, AFIR will open the first funding application sessions under the new financial programming implemented through the Strategic Plan PAC 2023 - 2027. In the initial phase, sessions will be opened for the installation of young farmers, investments in livestock, agricultural access infrastructure, basic road infrastructure, establishment and modernization of irrigation infrastructure, knowledge transfer, investments in the fruit and agricultural processing sector.

The Agency for Rural Investment Financing is an institution that is always active, constantly striving to take a step forward to perform and apply innovative solutions at the administrative system level, to best serve farmers, processors, associations, entrepreneurs, and public authorities in rural areas.