According to the Organization’s director general Iulia Iabanji, the program is intended for business support organizations of Moldova, small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs, national and regional authorities. A preliminary condition for putting these financial instruments into practice is to create an efficient partnership between the EU institutions and the business support organizations of Moldova.
Iulia Iabanji said COSME is an extraordinary opportunity for promoting the competitiveness of enterprises in Moldova, which offers access to financing and framework conditions for starting and developing businesses. “It is a program intended for the SME sector that can help us become competitive, identify business partners both for penetrating European markets and for attracting beneficiaries,” she stated.
To apply to the program, the Moldovan entrepreneurs must access www.ec.europa.eu where they can see if they are eligible for the open status call. These can later choose the partners or create consortiums as most of the appeals necessitate partnerships with other institutions or organizations or creation of consortiums. Afterward, the organization can register in the register of beneficiaries “Portal participant” and then in the ECAS system.
COSME is a financial instrument of the European Commission that supports the competitiveness of SMEs. It has a budget of €2.3 billion and will be implemented during six years.
The entrepreneurs in Moldova can benefit from financial assistance within the European Program for the Competiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (COSME) 2014-2020. Through the agency of this program, the managers of enterprises, including young entrepreneurs, can get support for easier gaining access to new markets, especially on the territory of the European Union. These will also benefit from support for creating favorable conditions for starting and developing businesses. A number of entrepreneurs were informed about the program in an event staged by the Organization for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, IPN reports.