OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2012. The limited access to financing is the main hindrance for small and medium-sized enterprises' development, Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar said at a roundtable on the matter.

The participants in the event analyzed the financing possibilities in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises, new financial tools and ways to improve the access to financing in the above sector.

Valeriu Lazar advocated the improvement of small and medium-sized enterprises' access to finances and said that the Economics Ministry is elaborating a new strategy in this field. The official said that enforcing the practices for enhancing small and medium-sized enterprises' access to finances is among its priorities. The minister added that the same thing is envisaged in the National Development Strategy "Moldova 2020", that was passed in first reading in the parliament.

According to the Governor of the National Bank, Dorin Dragutanu, the limited access to finance is not an administrative issue. Thus, it cannot be settled through a governmental decision or a regulation of the National Bank.

The participants in the roundtable proposed several solutions for improving the small and medium-sized enterprises' access to finances, among which: promoting a monetary policy oriented towards a reduced and stable inflation, cutting the loans' interest rates and developing a system for guaranteeing credits for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The small and medium-sized enterprises account for 97.5 per cent of the overall number of Moldovan companies. In 2011, they had a 28.3-per-cent contribution to the formation of Gross Domestic Product in Moldova.