The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has provided support to over 160 small and medium – sized enterprises in Moldova in the sphere of energy efficiency. A program, launched in 2009, financially supported by the Government of Sweden and by administrated EBRD, has contributed innovative and efficient energy ideas to domestic enterprises in agricultural business, construction, tourism and transport.
A release of EBRD states that 2.2 million euro worth consultancy projects have been deployed across Moldova, mostly in rural areas. “Sweden is a strategic partner for SMEs in Moldova in many areas, including energy efficiency. Due to grants for energy efficiency consultancy, over 160 businesses have been able to make their business more competitive by reducing energy consumption, cutting costs, ensuring greater resource efficiency and environmental management,” – Sweden’s Ambassador to Moldova, Signe Burgstaller said.
“The total 63 per cent of companies which implemented projects under programme reported a costs reduction in energy or energy consumption, while over 75 per cent of them showd an increase in turnover and 53 per cent of enterprises had productivity growth”, -said senior manager of Small Business Consulting Team, EBRD Moldova (ASB BERD Moldova), Veronica Arpintin stated.
In 2018, ASB BERD Moldova will continue to provide consultancy services to SMEs in Moldova within energy efficiency and other areas such as marketing, operations or technologies.
The EBRD and Minsk, the capital of Belarus, have launched a Green City Action Plan, initiating the city’s involvement in the Bank’s Green Cities Framework. The GCAP is aimed at helping cities to articulate their strategic objectives and sustainable development vision, as well as actions and investments to address prior environmental issues and meet the GCAP’s objectives.
The Green City Action Plan was formally launched by the Head of Minsk City Council of Deputies, Vasiliy Panasiuk jointly with the Head of EBRD Belarus Office Alexander Pivovarsky. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) provided support to the GCAP.
Minsk’s GCAP will focus on a range of sectors related to the city’s environmental concerns, including energy, transport, industry and land use. The GCAP will initially identify the city’s environmental priorities using indicators developed by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
The Framework is one way that the Bank is scaling up its green finance as a part of its Green Economy Transition (GET) approach. The GET seeks to increase the Bank’s volume of green financing to 40 per cent of its ABI, or roughly 4 billion euro by 2020.
EBRD invests in energy efficiency programs in post-Soviet region
