10 million lei will be allocated in 2021 for greening small and medium-sized enterprises.
This was announced by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy Lilia Palii during a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on promoting sustainable development and green economy. According to the Ministry of Economy, the Secretary of State presented the most important measures implemented in the second half of 2020, including the prompt launch of a program for greening SMEs with a budget of 60 million lei. It is noted that last year, 15 million lei were allocated for the implementation of this program, and 10 million lei are envisaged for 2021. The program includes various activities: informing and stimulating the strengthening of the eco-potential of SMEs; provision of resources and tools for greening, including through the provision of grants; facilitating SMEs' access to the implementation of an eco-management and eco-labeling system to enter international markets, promote exports and competitive integration into international value chains, etc. According to Palii, with the support of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an environmental assessment platform for SMEs was developed and implemented. The software is currently used by ODIMM as part of the Greening SMEs program. A project has also been launched to promote green investments and ecological public transport; the beneficiaries are the Chisinau, Balti, Ungheni, Cahul and Edinet mayor's offices. The Ministry of Economy considers this an important project from the point of view of the prospects for sustainable development of ecological transport in Moldova. At the same time, with the support of UNEP, a process is being launched to strengthen national capacities and promote eco-innovation for SMEs in partnership with ODIMM. So, in the first half of 2021, about 10 SMEs will be selected to develop business plans for eco-innovation. Lilia Palii also welcomed the start of the development of the Ecolabelling Regulation, which will allow transposing the provisions of the corresponding European regulation. The Secretary of State stressed that the promotion of environmental labeling and eco-innovation by Moldovan SMEs, the process of greening industrial parks and FEZs and attracting investments remain priority areas of interest for Moldova. It is worth noting that the meeting of the interdepartmental working group on promoting sustainable development and green economy was held within the framework of the EU environmental action program - EU4Environment. With EU support, this working group celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2020 (2015-2020). The aim of the EU4Environment Regional Project is to assist the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to ensure the sustainable use of natural capital, improve the quality of the environment and the well-being of the population, and stimulate economic growth. The project is being implemented in 2019-2022; its total budget for 6 countries and 5 implementing agencies is about 20 million euros. // 15.02.2021 - InfoMarket.
