OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2014. In particular, they were recovered half of advisory, certification, business planning and feasibility study expenditures. This was spoken about at a meeting of representatives of the World Bank, CCI of Moldova and Moldovan companies taken part in the Competitiveness Enhancement project, who discussed ways of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and opportunities to extend the program to new areas.

The Competitiveness Enhancement project was implemented in 2 stages: December 2006-May 2012 and September 2010-March 2012. Later it was prolonged till May 2013. The grants scheme was administrated by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moldova. According to Director of CCI Economy Department Sergiu Harea, within December 2012- June 2013, 53 Moldovan companies were provided with 67 grants to cover consulting services costs. The most-asked of the services were consulting on implementation of standards of quality management, development of feasibility studies and business plans.

Within October 2012-May 2013 CCI of Moldova was rendering economic agents assistance in implementing ISO quality management systems. According to Sergiu Harea, initially 15 grants were going to be provided. But due to a big number of applications, that quantity grew to 22 grants. “Seeing the whish of economic agents to act in line with international standards, the expansion of the project was of success”, he stressed.

WB specialists for private sector development Melissa Rekas and Daniel Ortiz, economist and expert for regulatory frameworks reforms Massimiliano Santini and adviser for SME development Stephen Silcox had talks with beneficiaries of the project, who told them about their achievements.

As for an opportunity to expand the project, instruments for business promotion and support to economic agents were indentified as areas to be first and foremost developed through private-and-public partnership and CCI’s participation in developing proposals for SME sector support national and local programs.