Press releases

More than 300 companies that have applied to the SME Digitalisation Tool are starting today, entrepreneurship training courses, and will run online from 18 August to 15 October. The Startup Academy 2020 programme is one of the tools through which it is proposed to support the technological transfer and digital development of SMEs in order to unleash their innovative potential, including facilitating their access to domestic and foreign markets.

At the training kick-off event, Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Sergiu Railean mentioned that due to the pandemic the economic activity of businesses in all areas has been severely affected and the development of e-commerce tools will help domestic producers digitalise their business processes and sell products or services on online platforms.

“The start of this programme 2 months ago was a government decision as necessary, as timely as it was. I am pleasantly surprised to attract so many entrepreneurs to develop their skills in these digital education trainings. Be aware that you are the ones who have already started the change, and I firmly believe that these digitalisation courses will bring efficiency and added value to your business. I urge you to take advantage of the knowledge that will be provided to you throughout this training period, and in particular to use digitalisation as a powerful tool for progress, business development ", noted Sergiu Railean.

In this context, Minister Railean thanked the ODIMM team for having managed in very limited terms to develop this programme and appreciated the effort and support of colleagues from Startup Moldova, Tekwill, who were actively involved in the process.

According to the Director General of ODIMM, Iulia Costin, Director General of ODIMM, this supporting initiative aims to support the digital transformation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises in order to harness innovative potential and facilitate companies’ access to domestic and foreign markets.

“We are glad that we are open to partners at the Startup Academy | Digital UPGRADE who have undertaken to organise these trainings, by involving practitioners and professionals who will guide the MSMEs in their digitalisation path. We are sure that these trainings will be a real support and help you to refine online experiences, expand distribution channels in the future, improve business processes and optimise costs”.

The training courses will be divided into two levels for novice and advanced students. Early level participants will study the following modules:introduction to digital, steps to create a website, self-promotion, paid advertising, etc. The advanced level covers topics such as expansion, content marketing, identification of online partners, legal and tax issues, automation of accounting and customer work processes, project management, etc.

The Startup Academy 2020 is an educational programme implemented by Startup Moldova with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swedish Government under the Tekwill project in partnership with the Organisation for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ODIMM).