Over 100 women to benefit from grants to start businesses in Moldova

Chisinau, 14 December /MOLDPRES/ - Over 100 women will benefit from non-refundable financing through the governmental programme, Women in Business, managed by the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development (ODIMM).  

The business women will have access to grants worth more than 14.2 million lei, which will stimulate direct investments in the economy amounting to 23 million lei in all and creation of 385 new jobs.

The investment projects today were approved by the programme’s supervision committee, made up of representatives of state institutions, donors, private companies and business associations.  

The general state secretary at the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry, Iulia Costin, has said that this programme gave to women chance to apply their ideas. “The enterprises managed by women are, to a great extent, prosperous and sustainable. The Economics and Infrastructure Ministry backs the programmes implemented by ODIMM and the initiatives on women’s involvement in the economic activity. The programme is meant to contribute to reducing the unemployment among women and to their more active involvement in the country’s development,” Costin stressed.   

For his part, the acting director general of ODIMM, Petru Gurgurov, said that, through the second component of the Women in Business programme, women entrepreneurs can access non-refundable financing worth 165,000 lei/beneficiary at the most. “The grants can be used to buy investments articles and services for developing the business. At present, we give those 101 women entrepreneurs possibility to start a successful business,” Petru Gurgurov noted.  

The financing of the companies managed by women will maintain about 263 present jobs and will contribute to the creation of 385 new jobs. About 63 per cent of the investment projects approved today is from the processing industry. Another 29 per cent is from design, education services for children, cinematographic production, IT, veterinary services, advertising, accounting, medical assistance, etc. The other 27 per cent of the women plan to invest in agriculture.    

Most women beneficiaries are from central Moldova – 71 per cent, 15 per cent are from the northern region and respectively, 14 per cent – from the southern part. The most active women who applied to the programme are from Chisinau, Anenii Noi, Ialoveni, Orhei, Sangerei and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia.

The pilot programme Women in Business is managed by ODIMM and lasts three years. The goal of this governmental initiative is to promote economic and social abilities of women from rural regions. The programme is financed from the state budget and is supplemented from European Union’s funds.