Municipalities from Moldova and Belarus cooperate on business support infrastructure development and implementation of local economic initiatives
09 August 2019On July 24-26, representatives of Gagauzia region (Moldova) conducted a study visit aimed at exploring best practices on business support services provision in Belarus.
The study visit was initiated by the M4EG Pioneer Project “Establishing Regional Business Information and Support Centre for the Gagauzia Region of the Republic of Moldova” and M4EG signatories from Gagauzia, who were specifically interested in the experience of their Belarusian colleagues in the development of business support infrastructure and services at the local level. The visit was conducted with the support of the M4EG Secretariat, with some of the costs covered by the M4EG Pioneer Project.
13 Moldovan participants, including the mayors of Comrat, Ceadir-Lunga and Gaidar (Gagauzia region) familiarized themselves with the organization and functioning of business support hard infrastructure such as free economic zones, technoparks, business incubators, and the institutional (soft) infrastructure for SME support services, provided by regional and local authorities in Belarus.
The delegation conducted site visits and meetings in 3 out of 6 regions of Belarus, namely Gomel (the administrative center of Gomel region), Slavgorod (the administrative center of Slavgorod district, Mogilev region), and Polotsk (the administrative center of Polotsk district, Vitebsk region), thus obtaining a comprehensive overview of Belarusian best practices in supporting small and medium enterprises and start-ups, including the actions on attracting investments and promoting job-creation, both at regional and local level.
On July 26, the delegation participated in the Cherry Festival in Glubokoye (Vitebsk region), and took part in the regional conference dedicated to tourism development. The visitors took this opportunity to present the tourism products and services developed in Gagauzia region to the Belarusian public.
As a result of the networking activity, Gaidar and Comrat municipalities established official relations with Slavgorod and Glubokoye district administrations correspondingly, by signing cooperation agreements, with the intention to cooperate on business support and tourism development.
The 3 teams of the M4EG Pioneer Projects from Gagauzia region (Moldova), Slavgorod and Glubokoye (Belarus) used the study visit as an opportunity to share their experience regarding project management issues and challenges, and discuss approaches to development of the business support services in the communities, as well as ways to ensure sustainability of their initiatives.