OREANDA-NEWS. October 27, 2011. It was said at a Moldovan-German forum for financing small and medium-sized enterprises held in Chisinau and organized within the Transform project implemented by the German Finance Ministry, with the participation of the KfW German Bank for Development in cooperation with the Moldovan Viitorul think tank.

Over 120 representatives of the SME sector, banking and financial institutions, public institutions and other organizations participated in the forum. The participants said that the SME has been a mover of Moldova’s economic development over the recent years. About 98 per cent out of the overall number of Moldovan enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, this sector offers jobs to 54 per cent of the total number of Moldovan employees. The small and medium-sized companies have a 29-per-cent quota of the national Gross Domestic Product and generate a third of the overall revenues of the national economy.

The forum’s participants said the SME’s access to loans is limited mainly by the high interest rates with tough requirement to pledges. KfW is one of the leaders of the German banking sector and an important player in the European banking field. In Moldova, it has been represented since 1999 and has worked in the social infrastructure and small- and medium business development segment.