PARE 1+1 Moldovan entrepreneurial support programme’s committee approves financing of 98 projects

Chisinau, 12 February /MOLDPRES/- The Supervisory Committee of the PARE 1+1 programme on attracting remittances into the economy approved the financing of 98 investment projects accounting for 19 million lei today, the Economics Ministry’s press service has reported.

Out of a total number of 217 applications filed during 2015, the committee approved 98 projects to be developed in the agriculture, livestock, construction, transport and service sector. An amount of 62 per cent of the enterprises work in the agricultural sector, while 10 per cent are in the manufacturing and other 28 per cent in the service sector.

Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Octavian Calmic said migrant workers and their relatives were highly interested in the PARE 1+1 programme and the growing number of financing requests was proving it. Compared to 280 applicants in 2012, the number of people willing to participate in the programme reached 1598 in 2015.

“Besides developing Moldova’s business environment, backing migrants’ investment projects also helps return the human potential, especially youth, back home. The analyses carried out confirm this fact, showing that 49.5 per cent of the financing requests come from newly-created enterprises and 51.5 per cent are companies enlarging their capacity. Moreover, 50 per cent of the business owners are aged up to 35 years,” Calmic said.

The head of the The Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development (ODIMM), Iulia Iabanji, said migrant workers willing to invest their remittances into the 98 approved business-projects, had worked in 14 states, inclusively from the EU, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the USA. Most businesses have their capital gained in Italy or Russia (46 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, of the total number of applications). An amount of 53 per cent of the total number of requests belongs to migrants who returned home, and 45 per cent are applications filled in by their relatives. Moreover, 35 enterprises of the 98 participating in the project are owned by women.   

At the end of the meeting, the committee decided to launch a call for new PARE 1+1 financing requests for 2016.

 According to a study carried out by ODIMM, PARE 1+1 helped 612 enterprises get easier access to funds, which in their turn, invested 350 million lei in the Moldovan economy. Besides that, the grants transferred within the programme account for 133 million lei.

(Reporter A. Mardare, Editor L. Alcaza)