​​​​​​Promoting digital literacy of women in business, supporting startups, improving mentoring and coaching services in entrepreneurship were discussed at a meeting of the Working Group on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Gender Equality of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, organized jointly with the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization.  

The working group meeting was chaired by State Secretary Veronica Arpintin.

“The Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization together with the Entrepreneurship Development Organization has developed a new Program to support women entrepreneurship, which will aim to stimulate women entrepreneurship by supporting the development of enterprises established and managed by women. The concept of the new programme will include financial support for both start-ups and growing companies. It will target priority areas of activity and the real needs of women entrepreneurs. The aim is to increase the number of women entrepreneurs, improve the economic performance and resilience of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises run by women,” said Secretary of State Veronica Arpintin.

During the meeting, the participants, representatives of business associations and state institutions, talked about their successes, opportunities and challenges.

Among the proposals, UN Women’s recommendations to change the eligibility criteria for qualifying as a “female entrepreneur” were mentioned. The Alliance for Women’s Economic Empowerment made a number of recommendations for the new programme including: launching a questionnaire on support tools for women’s entrepreneurship development and impartial evaluation of business support programmes. And the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Moldova recommended reviewing procedures for accessing funding programmes such as the own contribution and the need for VAT coverage for women who receive grant funding.

The Economic Council Secretariat proposed that the new programme should provide financial support in the form of a scholarship for online MBA studies for those women in business who want to strengthen their business management skills.

All the proposals and recommendations made during the meeting will be summarized by the Economic Council Secretariat and submitted to the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization for systematization and inclusion in the Women Entrepreneurship Support Programme.

According to statistics, the share of women in business in the Republic of Moldova is about 34%.

From 2016 to 2022, the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization, through the ODA, implemented the Women in Business Program, where more than 1200 women were trained in entrepreneurship and guided in developing investment projects.

In 2022, out of the total number of 541 beneficiaries of ODA entrepreneurial support programs, 228 companies are managed by women.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund, and the International Finance Corporation’s Investment Climate Reform Project funded by the Government of Sweden’s International Development Agency.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.