Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are determinants of economic development, innovation and modernization, achieving a wide range of functions and objectives. SMEs represent the largest share of a country’s GDP, generate most of the innovations applicable to the economy, create jobs and show the highest dynamism in the market economy. This is evidenced by their development, turnover and the size of the employed labour force, which is significantly better compared to large enterprises. Based on the analysis of the literature and statistical data, this paper presents the role of SMEs in Romanian industrial development in the context of overlapping crises. Several indicators are analyzed, including the evolution of the number of enterprises by sector, turnover, number of employees by sector, net investment in industry as a whole and in SMEs, gross value added at factor cost, gross value added at factor cost per employee, the share of SMEs in direct exports, the number of SMEs in the industry by size classes. Our study provides an overview of the current state of the economic environment from the perspective of the industrial sector in Romania, presenting at the same time the external and internal trends and factors that act as a barrier to investment activity.