OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2014. Representatives of the World Bank, the Moldovan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and economic agents, who have previously participated in the Ameliorarea competitivitatii (Improving Competitiveness) project, met in Chisinau today. The meeting was organised to discuss ways to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a possible extension of the project into new areas, the CCI press service has reported.

The director of the CCI’s Department of Economy, Sergiu Harea, said that 67 grants for consulting services had been provided to 53 local companies within the Improving Competitiveness project in December 2012-June 2013, in partnership with the World Bank. The most demanded services were those on implementing quality management standards, feasibility studies, business plans.

The Moldovan CCI acted as manager of the World Bank’s grant scheme project, Improving Competitiveness II, in October 2012 -May 2013. On this period, CCI assisted economic agents in implementing the quality management systems - ISO. "Initially, 15 grants were planned to be offered. Yet, given that the number of applicants was higher, 22 grants were provided. Economic agents want to operate according to international standards, and expanding the project was a success," said Sergiu Harea.

The members of the Washington delegation, represented by private sector development specialists Melissa Rekas and Daniel Ortiz, economist and expert in reforming the regulatory framework Massimiliano Santini, and SMEs development consultant Stephen Silcox, were interested in the results achieved by the beneficiaries and discussed directly with them.

In the context of considering the possibility to extend the project, more priority areas were identified. These are tools for business promotion and support of economic agents by using public-private partnership mechanisms, CCI’s participation in preparing offers to achieve programs to support the implementation of SMEs locally and nationally. CCI services to improve the business environment, to train and retrain personnel for enterprises, to conduct foreign trade activity, etc. were mentioned as basic factors.

The Improving Competitiveness project was implemented for two components in December 2006 - May 2012, and September 2010 -March 2012, and was later extended to May 2013. CCI was the manager of the grant scheme. Over 500 local companies received grants within this project - reimbursement of 50 per cent of the spending for consultancy, certification, business plans, feasibility studies, etc.