BUCHAREST, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian government decided to allocate over 29 million euros (33.64 million U.S. dollars) as the first phase of the state-aid schemes to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology (IT) sector, a minister told a press conference on Wednesday.

SMEs in the IT field will be able to get funding for the development of research and development projects, and the government published the funding rules for these state-aid schemes on Oct. 16, announced Bogdan Cojocaru, minister of Communications and Information Society.

According to him, 25 million euros of the program will come from the European Regional Development Fund, and the rest from the national budget.

The IT&C sector in the country is on the rise, contributing currently around 7 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), said the minister, stressing that it is important for the authorities to come up with business support measures to ensure the continuation of the trend.

According to Cojocaru, the funding for the IT innovative projects will be provided under two aid schemes, namely a state-aid scheme and a de minimis aid scheme that will be extended until 2020, with a total budget of 94 million euros. (1 euro=1.16 U.S. dollars)