A business incubator was opened in Cahul on Thursday, August 17, with the support of the European Union. It will host 25 companies, which will create 60 jobs. The incubator will provide logistic support, consultancy, training and financial assistance not only to the hosted businesses, but to other companies from Cahul and Moldova’s southern districts. Moreover, seven virtual residents will also benefit from its services, IPN reports.

The Cahul business incubator will work as a public institution, in the same format as the other ten incubators opened in the last eight years in Soroca, Stefan Voda, Leova, Rezina, Sangerei, Dubasari, Ceadar-Lunga, Cimislia, Nisporeni and Calarasi.

The opening event was attended by the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure and Deputy Prime Minister Octavian Calmac, the head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, Pirkka Tapiola, and other representatives of the local and central public authorities. They were joined by the managers of other business incubators.

According to Iulia Iabanji, head of the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development (ODIMM), the Cahul incubator will help young entrepreneurs in several ways. Hosted companies will rent offices and manufacturing spaces at discounted prices, will receive free entrepreneurial consultancy and training, good practices transfers and support in developing business partnerships.

The renovation and equipment of the incubator’s premises have been financed by the EU and the Cahul District Council. The overall costs are estimated at 8.6 million lei, of which the local authorities contributed 900,000 lei.

In June, another business incubator was opened in Calarasi. Overall, the incubators opened by ODIMM hosted 289 business, creating about 850 jobs. Currently, they host 166 companies that provide 600 jobs. Of these, 42% are occupied by women and 35% by young people. The joint turnover of the incubated companies was 94 million lei in 2016.