Expert-Grup

Tulip Business Incubator – Support program for young entrepreneurs in the Republic of Moldova

Projectspublished:Tuesday, 9 April 202413 views
Tulip Business Incubator – Support program for young entrepreneurs in the Republic of Moldova

Project duration: January – October 2024

Donor: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Moldova

General context:

Over the last years, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) accounted for about 98% of total number of enterprises. At the same time, they represent only 59% of total employment in the business sector and 38% from total turnover. According to the OECD Policy Index 2024 score, one of the most problematic aspects of SME development is related to poor access to financing (3.49 points out of 5 points maximum), being ranked lower compared to the average from EaP countries. Limited access to financing, while being a problem in itself, is also a consequence of deeper problems related to limited information and capacities of entrepreneurs to effectively access financing and develop/scale up their businesses. This is mainly related to basics: drafting a credible business plan, conducting proper financial management and planning or marketing strategy and approaches. As a result, the problem of access to finance has another side – low absorption capacity of SMEs of financing opportunities that are already available. Namely, most Moldovan banks are traditionally abundant in liquidities (in fact, there is a constant excess of liquidities, which the central bank is permanently sterilizing through its monetary policy instruments. This is the direct consequence of businesses poor capacity to convince the bank in getting investment loans because of the issues mentioned above. Also, the government led Organization for Entrepreneurial Support (ODA) is facing a similar problem: poor quality of applications and business plans that get rejected in getting preferential funding that is available for SMEs. So, the problem of access to financing is related primarily to the limited capacities of SMEs to tap into the available financing opportunities, which will be the focus of this project. 

Objectives:

  1. Increase the capacities of young entrepreneurs to manage and scale up their businesses
  2. Facilitate the access to funding of young entrepreneurs.

 

The support programme for young entrepreneurs in the Republic of Moldova "Tulip Business Incubator" is implemented by the Independent Think-Tank "Expert-Grup" with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Moldova.