Prioritatea 8 „Sprijinirea Competitivit ă ţii Întreprinderilor” a Strategiei Uniunii Europene pentru Regiunea Dun ă rii (SUERD) Priority Area 8 „Supporting the competitiveness of enterprises” EU Strategy for the Danube Region

FACTS ABOUT MOLDOVA Declaration of Independence: August 27, 1991 Capital: Chişin ă u ( ) Area: sq. km. Population: Economy: food industry, wine industry, light industry GDP: 7,368 billion $ (2013) GDP per capita: $ (2013) Working-age population: 1,33 million people Unemployment: 3,9 % (2013) Inflation: 4,6% (2013) Borders with Romania, on the west, and Ukraine on the other three sides

333 Exports, imports and trade balance in January-December , million USD

The main trade partners of the Republic of Moldova (2013)

5 Imports by groups of countries, million USD

6 Exports by groups of countries, million USD

Main policy documents The Government Program of the Republic of Moldova "European Integration: Freedom, Democracy, Welfare “ National Development Strategy "Moldova 2020" (adopted in 2012) Small and Medium-Size Enterprises Development Strategy (adopted in 2012) Regulatory Reform Strategy (adopted in 2013) Competition Enhancement Road Map (adopted in 2014)

Association Agreement EU - Republic of Moldova Initialling of the Association Agreement and DCFTA. Visa regime liberalization for Moldova to EU from April 28 th, The Association Agenda

Programme "Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (2014 to 2020)" December 13, Republic of Moldova letter of intention to participate at the EU Program Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) (2014 to 2020) January 23, Acceptance from the European Commission On-going state of play – the Agreement is under the internal procedures for signing.

Greening economies in the Eastern Neighbourhood Countries, EaP Green Programme Republic of Moldova is part of the program "Greening the Economy in the Eastern Neighbourhood", funded by the European Commission and supported by the OECD, UNEP, UNECE and UNIDO. (1)Governance and financing instruments (2)Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Analysis (3)demonstration projects.

Small Business Act Assessment I phase – II phase – Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaidjan, Belarus, Ukraine

List of institutions subordinated or coordinated by the Ministry of Economy: Public Property Agency Licensing Chamber Energy Efficiency Agency Energy Efficiency Fund Consumer Protection Agency Organization for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (ODIMM) Organization for Attracting Investments and Export Promotion (MIEPO) State Inspectorate for Technical Supervision of Industrial Hazardous Objects State Energy Inspectorate National Accreditation Centre (MOLDAC) National Institute of Metrology National Institute of Standards

Republic of Moldova’s participation in the transnational cooperation Programmes/projects Transnational Cooperation Programme South East Europe Moldova participate in 6 projects (Additional Call 2013, 2 mln Euro) Ministry of Economy PP in the “Developing Smart Specialization Strategies for Cluster Improvement” ClusterPolySEE project. (25 partn. from 13 SEE countries) The overall objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of regional policy makers to confront, prevent and anticipate change, developing smart specialization strategies for cluster improvement, thus accelerating differentiation and structural change towards a knowledge-based economy in which there is a place for all SEE regions to position themselves. SEECEL project Moldova MoE participated in “Women Entrepreneurship - a job creation engine for South East Europe” project. The overall objective was to promote best policy practices in women entrepreneurship in line with the Small Business Act for Europe and capacity building of national and regional women entrepreneur’s networks & associations.

MoE area of interest for collaboration in Danube Region Innovation and technology transfer Exchange of experience and creation of a professional network for better utilization of the possibilities and elaborate recommendation on how to make the innovation system to work at national level within EU context. The GoM recently adopted the Strategy “Innovation for Competitiveness” , with three specific objectives: Technological development of enterprises, including SME sector. Development of support infrastructure for innovational activity Provide condition to build a knowledge based economy Euroalliance for Innovation DANUBIUS DESIGN “NOATEX” Technological center for textiles and Garments Environmental technology and energy efficiency Regional Centre for Excellence in Renewable Energy Bio Danube Cluster of Excellence Danube Cluster Net Fostering inter cluster cooperation in the Danube Region Training for cluster managers Danu4Agroind “Danube Agro-Industrial Clusters Network” Creating a network for obtaining and superior capitalization of biomass Miscanthus type in the Danube areas

MoE area of interest for collaboration in Danube Region Vocational Education and Training No. 1 priority in the NDS Moldova 2020 Adjustment of the educational system to the demands of the labor market in order to enhance the productivity of the workforce and increase the employment rate in the economy ACTIONS UNDER WAY Creation of the National Vocational Training Quality Assurance Agency – improve the quality of educationby creating a quality assurance system Excellence centers (10) – scientific, curriculum and methodological support to VET system on their segment of specialization, promotion of an efficient partnership between the Center and related vocational/technical institutions and the business environment, on their segment of specialization Form horizontal/vertical clusters in higher education DUENG-Dual Education in Engineering Entrepreneurial Learning Collaboration with SEECEL and ETF