OREANDA-NEWS. March 20, 2013. Moldovan businessmen are now given the opportunity to learn from the German experience, as regards the efficient business organisation and creation of clusters in various activity fields. In this context, a delegation of Moldovan businessmen participated in two Moldovan-German meetings in Germany, Leipzig and Potsdam.

During the meetings, the Moldovan businessmen learned German methods to organise and ensure the functioning of clusters. They also held bilateral business meetings.

According to the press service of the Moldovan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), the head of the international relations department of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry from Leipzig, Mathias Feige, had presented the Moldovan delegation information on regional clusters and their economic results as well as information on how to organise an efficient business.

For his part, the chairman of the Moldovan CCI, Gheorghe Cucu, who headed the Moldovan delegation, said it was necessary to learn from the German experience in order to develop the Moldovan business environment. “The CCI from Leipzig helped us elaborate the law on Moldova’s CCI. We thank our German partners and their cameral institutions for helping us organise economic missions, participate in exhibitions and various projects meant to improve the business sector. Germany is further one of Moldova’s main trade partners, though the Moldovan-German trade turnout lowered by nine per cent in 2012 against 2011, and reached 456.1 million dollars,” Cucu said.

The German side suggested Moldova visited and participated with a national stand in the well-known fair in Leipzig, which had been organised for centuries.

The Moldovan delegation also visited the German Biomass Research Centre on 12 March and found out more about programmes for eastern European states, cooperation and financing opportunities, which could help Moldova create its own Renewable Energy Cluster.

The businessmen discussed agricultural and food sector related issues during the meeting in Potsdam on 13 March. The leader of the Economy and Food Cluster, Deitmar Leitow, presented the activity of the structure, which is made of eight agricultural producers associations and some of the most notorious agro-food companies from the federal state Brandenburg. Moldovan businessmen showed interest in German practices used in the field, in particular, in practices meant to unify various rival companies in a single cluster. Clusters are support structures for various businesses in a certain economic sector and include interconnected companies, providers, connected institutions and organisations, which create direct and indirect synergies between them. Clusters help increase the competitiveness of their member-companies, extend the market and improve their visibility.

The Moldovan delegation pays a study visit to Germany on 11-15 March. A number of 20 representatives of Moldovan companies and associations backing the business development are part of the delegation. The delegation also includes businessmen working in the agro-food and renewable energy sector from Transnistria. The visit is organised by the Moldovan CCI, within the programme entitled “Support to Confidence Building Measures “. The programme is financed by the EU and co-financed and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).