The Ministry of Economy announces the continuation of the program to support the SME sector that is financed by the Partner Fund of the Japanese Grant, Info-Prim Neo reports. The program is designed to facilitate the purchase of imported production equipment. In a communiqué, the Ministry says the equipment bought within the program will be offered to the beneficiaries in leasing for a period of one year, without pledge. No interest rate and value added tax will be put on the imported equipment. There will be also provided customs tax concessions. The applicants can purchase equipment of minimum 500,000 lei and maximum 2.5 million lei. The applications for participation can be filed between July 5 and July 19 to the Ministry of Economy – the unit that is distributing the grant provided by the Government of Japan (MD-2004, 180 Stefan cel Mare Blvd, Chisinau, Moldova). Since 2005, the Government of Japan has offered Moldova a grant in four tranches to the value of 1,300 million Japanese yen (about US$11.9 million) to promote the structural economic adjustment efforts. In 2010, the abovementioned unit accepted 11 of the 101 application for participation in the contest as part of the third tranche. The projects totaled 22.4 million lei. A number of 106 companies benefited from grants within the program so far.