Project of World Bank: Improving Competitiveness extended by two years in Moldova

Chisinau, 15 September /MOLDPRES/ – The grants component for Small and Medium Enterprises of the Competitiveness Improvement Project (CAP II) has been extended until 30 July 2021, according to a decision on it, adopted by the World Bank (WB), at the request of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure (MEI). The decision was supplemented by the increase of co – financing ceiling up to an amount of MDL 300,000, thus ensuring the access of the Moldovan economic agents to financing from the Project so as to increase their exports.

Through this project, over 100 beneficiary companies have managed to increase their business volume and created about 340 new jobs, generating on average exports of over $232,000.

So far, over 140 companies have benefited from grants in the amount of nearly $01 mln. Most of beneficiaries of PAC II are from agrifood and beverage sector – 31 per cent, from manufacturing sector – 20 per cent, textiles – 14 per cent, services – 14 per cent, agriculture – 12 per cent, IT and production of electronic components – 09 per cent.

The grant component of Competitiveness Improvement Project II has a budget of about $2.8 mln and offers up to MDL 300,000 per economic agent, for small and medium – sized companies for contracting business development and improvement export potential services. Up to 30 per cent of the grant amount can be used to purchase equipment.

The most requested business development services, financed by CAP II, were marketing and promotion. More than half of the beneficiaries of grants requested financing for brand image and corporate identity, design and packaging, development of marketing strategies, development of websites with online shops. Other development services required by PAC II beneficiaries include certification within quality management systems, info systems, market research, optimisation of internal processes, etc.

The MEI encourages the economic agents of Moldova to apply to co – financing programme through the Competitiveness Improvement project in order to strengthen the export competitiveness and expand into new markets.

With a total budget of $45 mln, CAP II is implemented in 2015 – 2021. The project aims to improve the business environment by supporting the Government in implementing strategies aimed at creating a favourable business environment, reducing constraints and costs for business management. Also, the project contributes to development of the sector of small and medium – sized enterprises by facilitating access to medium and long – term financing, strengthening the institutional capacities of ODIMM and Investment Agency, offering grants to private economic agents, helping to increase the export competitiveness, etc.