What are sandboxes and how will Moldovan entrepreneurs and potential investors benefit from them? The concept was presented by the Ministry of Energy, the business sector, relevant institutions and development partners at the meeting of Working Group 3 “Stimulating and Maintaining Private Investment” within the Economic Council to the Prime Minister, organised with the support of UNDP Moldova.

Thus, according to Energy Minister Victor Parlicov, the development of Innovative Technology Test Centres, known in English as Sandboxes, will be initiated in Moldova, where entrepreneurs can test new energy technologies. The initiative will also be supported by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, an American investment fund with a $285 million portfolio and 29 years of activity in Ukraine and Moldova. Attending the same event, Secretary of State Cristina Pereteatcu presented the concept for energy innovation test centres and a roadmap for implementing the concept in Moldova, developed with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. According to the authorities, these centres for testing innovative technologies will benefit from special regulations, licensing procedures, tariffs and rules, as opposed to the usual ones. For example, in many countries such regimes apply to companies testing autonomous driving systems on public roads. The same was true in many countries in the early days of drones, which had to be granted exemptions to climb to certain altitudes or reach certain weights or speeds. It’s the same with many other new technologies – electric planes, ships – anything in its innovative form that doesn’t fit the law. And in Moldova every such project would receive clear exceptions for each idea, and because it is about energy, it is also specified that the companies that will make these developments could have access to special electricity costs or easier permits for drilling, grid connections. What Moldova wants with these ideas would be for energy innovation to catch on and take off. Moldova must become an example in the region of implementing energy innovations in the shortest possible time, Minister Parlicov stressed at the meeting with the business sector. And the ministry is currently in the process of drafting the relevant regulatory framework to be consulted, including on the Economic Council platform.

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.