PRIVATE COMPANIES BENEFIT FROM FINANCIAL SUPPORT UNDER THE TEKWILL PROJECT

The ICT sector in Moldova is facing an acute crisis of skilled labor in the field. Although about 18,000 professionals are employed in IT, companies in the local market are in the process of recruiting. Employers are ready to enroll at least 4,000 specialists, a demand covered by the labor market in the proportion of one third. In order to alleviate the crisis of IT specialists in specific fields, the TEKWILL Project, implemented with the support of USAID and Sweden, invests in private initiatives. Thus, within the “Private Sector Engagement Initiatives”, several Moldovan IT companies were accepted to generate opportunities and solutions to attract and train professionals in the field, but also entrepreneurship, especially at the regional level.

Ana Chirița, TEKWILL Project Director: “Training the workforce and adapting it to current needs is a common responsibility. That is why in the TEKWILL Project we also encouraged the private sector to get involved in the development of human capital, as they are the ones who have to face the problem directly. We are convinced that such support for the private sector will contribute to the achievement of the project’s objectives – more well-trained human resources in the field and a competitive regional market, with local investments by IT companies.”

PRIVATE INITIATIVES – FROM DIGITAL EDUCATION, TO SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT SMEs IN THE FINANCING PROCESS

In the first stage, a commission of independent experts selected through competition 12 private initiatives (10 being approved at the level of donors) that will enjoy the financial support offered within the TEKWILL project. They have demonstrated that their concepts are viable, with an impact on the market (including at regional level), and that they have adequate potential for the implementation team. Financial support is provided according to the co-financing model and covers a maximum of 50% of the total cost of the initiative.

Luc Vocks, General Manager of “iSIGHT Partners”: “We applied to this project because we want to create a world-class tool for assisting organizations in public tenders. Our product is called TenderWell.App. The financial support offered by TEKWILL is very necessary. This will allow us to develop new features of the application, which will bring added value to customers in the purchase process.”

Tudor Darie, Executive Director of “Fagura”: “Startups and SMEs in the Republic of Moldova have limited access to finance. In the post-COVID-19 pandemic, this problem will be even more serious. “Fagura” will develop a “scoring” module, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, which will allow a more detailed analysis of the payment capacity of the company and the founders and will issue in a second a decision approving or rejecting the credit application. The solution can be used by commercial banks, state institutions or non-bank lending organizations to facilitate access to finance for startups and SMEs in the Republic of Moldova.”

Among the companies whose initiatives have been selected for co-financing are:

• “Q-systems” wants to extend a project that turns the process of paying regular invoices into an electronic, paperless, and convenient to all parties involved: service providers, payment operators and payers. According to the company, changing the procedures for processing information (from analog to digital) will involve redirecting training and professional needs of employees. Thus, there will be a change in the professional profile of employees and an increase in interest in the IT field of young candidates for positions in various fields.
• “Dataline”. The company’s initiative focuses on software simulators offered to universities in the regions, which are widely used in management and business studies at Western universities and corporate training service providers. Simulators are a more active way of learning, which according to the project team, would help students practice decision-making skills by creating a virtual environment similar to the real-world market.
• “Kvazar-Micro”. The project aims to implement a monitoring tool (“KM-Service Monitoring”) based on IoT technology, which allows remote reception of information about the status of the technological process and alerts. Based on the information received, the customer can remotely make changes to the process. This will improve labor productivity and reduce production costs and losses.
• Paynet Services. The project provides for attracting the diaspora in paying online bills of citizens of the Republic of Moldova. The service will be promoted in the countries with the largest number of Moldovan citizens abroad (Italy, Russia, Israel, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Greece).
• “Simpals” focuses on new approaches to education. The company is developing an online platform that simplifies the operational process of online course management and turns authors of courses into facilitators. In this way, through online courses, private companies will be able to train employees more quickly in the training process, international organizations or local associations that have already created courses could provide access to a large number of users, and educational institutions will be able to add online courses for combined education.
• Orange Moldova. Through a program of the Orange Foundation, the company wants to encourage the social and professional integration of women. The program is focused on 3 pillars: digital equipment, educational content and learning assistance. The company intends to create 3 digital centers in different regions of the country. According to the project, about 500 women aged between 18 and 45, would benefit from training in the field of information technology use and launching and promoting their own businesses.

The TEKWILL project – The revolution begins!

The TEKWILL project is implemented by the National Association of ICT Companies, with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development and Sweden. “Tekwill” was created in 2017 as a Center of Excellence of the ICT sector in Moldova, with the main purpose of aligning the field with current market requirements. Aiming to contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the IT industry and other strategic sectors of the economy, the center expanded its fields of activity, becoming in 2019 a complex project at national level, with the slogan “The revolution begins!” The basic objective of the TEKWILL Project, as a platform dedicated to the progress of the IT sector, is to ensure a major impact on the economic development of the country, by improving the entrepreneurial and educational capacities of society, but also by increasing the research and development potential of educational institutions, in line with the demand in the IT market.