Press releases

The new entrepreneurship support initiative is in the finishing phase, designed by Organisation for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ODSME) in collaboration with Ministry of Economythrough the transnational project Finance4SocialChangeof which the Republic of Moldova and other 14 countries in the Danube region.

Draft National Funding and Mentoring Programme for Social Enterprises was presented in Budapest (Hungary) at Finance4SocialChange Project Closing Conference. The project’s Patents and experts, who took part in the event, appreciated the new entrepreneurial support mechanism as a unique and useful tool for developing social entrepreneurship not only in the Republic of Moldova, but also in other countries of the Danube Region.

“This will be a programme to create a more inclusive society, using business tools to tackle social problems. The new entrepreneurial support instrument will be part of a complex phase of development of the social economy and social entrepreneurship in the Republic of Moldova”stressed Finodora Marcu, Project Manager at ODIMM.

The new support tool was developed by ODIMM in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and development partners, with the objective of supporting the development of more than 100 social enterprises, especially in rural areas, and the creation of at least 300 new jobs.

And with the support of the European project Finance4SocialChangeODIMM is running a large scale in November National campaign to promote the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative through which 10 webinars and 10 workshops, 10 targeted audience information sessions were organised, social entrepreneurs’ successful histories and educational spots on the specificities of this less explored field in the Republic of Moldova were promoted.

In the framework of Closing conference of the Information and Promotion of Social Entrepreneurship Campaign in the Republic of Moldovato be held on 2 Decemberwill be launched map of Social Entrepreneurshipa WEB platform to become a useful tool for social entrepreneurship, both in terms of creating visibility and providing the necessary information for potential social entrepreneurs.

We recall that so far, 4 Moldovan companies have been awarded the title of “insertion social enterprises” to the National Commission for Social Entrepreneurship. A further 46 companies are known to be regularly engaged in social activities.

According to statistical data, the social economy in Europe employs more than 14.5 million paid employees, which is equivalent to around 6.5 % of the working-age population, and about one in four businesses created has the status of a social enterprise.

Finance4SocialChange is co-financed by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI) under the second call for projects of the Danube Transnational Programme 2014-2020. ODIMM is a partner in the implementation of the Finance4SocialChange project, along with 19 institutions from 15 countries in the Danube region.