Press releases

13 companies led by young people, including women from southern Moldova will receive non-repayable financial support from Organisation for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ODSME) and International Labour Organisation (ILO). This initiative, agreed in the framework of the The Local Employment Partnerships (LEP) in the Căușeni and Cantemir districts will provide the 13 businesses with non-repayable financial support from the State, amounting to RON 1 million and RON 73 million. At the same time, the own contribution of young entrepreneurs to these investment projects is covered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). and it is about RON 380 thousand.

Implementation of investment projects, selected through the programmes “Start for Young People” and “Women in Business“, they will help create some 35 jobs in rural areas. Business starts in different areas of activity, such as: production of pasta, beekeeping, production of clothes, production of thermal insulation sheets from reeds, production of wooden toys, cultivation of fruit trees and provision of interior and exterior building design and spatial planning services.

“ODIMM advocates increasing partnerships and attracting external funds to support domestic companies and co-finance national business support programmes. The partnership between ODIMM ILOs is successful and we will continue to push for its scale-up to provide more business opportunities for young people, including women with fewer financial opportunities”stated Dumitru Pîntea, ODIMM Acting Director.

“Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) are a platform for social dialogue between various local and national partners to jointly identify labour market challenges, develop solutions tailored to local circumstances and take concrete action to create decent jobs and formalise existing ones. The OELs implemented by ILOs in the Cahul, Cantemir and Căușeni districts have fully proven their effectiveness and have a positive impact on the local labour market and thus on the inhabitants of these three districts. We hope that this innovative model will continue to be harnessed and even expanded at national level”noted Violeta Vrabie, Project Coordinator at ILO.

In the framework of the partnership ILO-ODIMMimplemented during the years 2021-2022, 110 young people and women from the Căușeni and Cantemir districts will receive entrepreneurial education through the ‘Start for Young People’ and ‘Women in Business’ programmesand 50 people will be able to receive non-reimbursable funding to launch and develop their own businesses.

As a reminder, between 2019 and 2020, ODIMM participated in the first Local Partnership for Employment implemented by ILO in the Cahul district with the aim of boosting the local labour market. As a result of the implementation of the Cahul OEL, more than 208 jobs were created and formalised and 75 businesses were launched in beekeeping, creative industries and crafts, of which ODIMM financially supported 11 businesses initiated by young people and women from the Cahul district and 25 young people were trained in entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs who have received financial support include: Ion Bodolică from the village of Colibași, Cahul. After seven years working abroad, she returned home and continues to build the business started with the chosen heart. Mr and Mrs Colibași have a business in the field of agriculture, growing flowers in greenhouses. Thanks to the non-reimbursable funding, Mr and Mrs Colibași built two modern greenhouses equipped with those needed to grow plants in any season. This allowed them to increase productivity.

‘Of these four years, as we have seen results, we have decided to stay at home. It is happy to work at home. You are with your wife. This is not the distance that some people have. I do not regret anything. I am very happy and thank the Cahul Removal Partnership and the Youth Start programme for what we have achieved so far.”

Entrepreneur Andrei putregai from Cociulia village, Cantemir district it is a company active in the production of thermal insulation sheets from reeds and the provision of wall insulation and reed roofing services. The young man went along his father’s footsteps and continues his business. Thanks to experience and observations in Europe, where the young man’s father worked for several years in a row, he motivated him to start the business based on the preparation of reeds.

“With this grant we want to buy an automatic reed knitting machine or other thermal insulation products. This would help us produce more square metres of thermal insulation plates. The reed is a perfect thermoinsulation. During summer, the home is cooled and the winter keeps the heat, and the air circulates differently, not just in the phenoplast. The MSMEs have helped us to promote local and organic raw materials’, stressed the beneficiary.