The rural companies will get €1 million for buying equipment in leasing for collecting raw material and producing biomass. The money is offered within the Energy and Biomass Project, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the Ministry of Economy. The Ministry, as an institution responsible for the energy sector, called a working meeting to discuss the activities planned to be carried out this year within the Energy and Biomass Project that is financed by the European Union, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, especially components 1 and 2 – the mechanism for making purchases in leasing for local suppliers of biomass. The meeting was attended by representatives of the EU Delegation headed by Dirk Schuebel and of UNDP in Moldova. One of the main components of the project is the provision of baling and briquetting equipment in leasing. “We do not know very well the given market, including that for raw material for producing renewable sources of energy all over the county. A comprehensive study will be made in the near future so as to see what investments we can make and avoid investing money where the private sector invested its owns resources in using renewable sources of energy, such as straw, branches and sawdust,” Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said at the beginning of the meeting. He also said that the Unit for Implementing and Administering the Food Production Increase Project - 2 KR, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, will manage the purchase of agricultural equipment. The Energy Efficiency Agency working under the Ministry of Economy will manage the process of buying industrial equipment. The sum allocated for this project will be distributed equally, 50% to 50%.