The young people are Moldova’s future and we must find the best ways of investing in this future and of helping Moldova to develop, World Bank Country Manager for Moldova Melanie Marlett told reporters at a meeting. Recently, the World Bank launched a competitive grant programme titled Ukraine-Belarus-Moldova Youth Development Marketplace (DM) that funds innovative, small-scale development projects through an open, transparent, and merit-based selection process. DM’s primary objective is to identify and support creative cutting-edge solutions to the most pressing social and economic concerns of our time, ideas that deliver results and have the potential to be expanded or replicated elsewhere. The programme’s theme is “Choose Your Future Today: Improving Work Opportunities and Developing Healthy Lifestyles for Young People”. Proposals are now solicited from entities that work on youth-related development issues for the maximum grant amount of 20,000 US dollars. The deadline for all proposals is January 18, 2007. For further details on the programme visit the website www.worldbank.org.md.