Press Release

ILO and EBRD jointly support small and medium-sized enterprises in the fight against Covid-19 crisis in Moldova

15 July 2020

CHISINAU, REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA—The impact of COVID-19 across the global economy will be profound. Markets and supply chains have been disrupted, businesses have closed or scaled back operations, and millions of people lost their jobs and livelihoods already. ILO estimated that full or partial lockdown measures affected almost 2.7 billion workers, representing around 81% of the world’s workforce. As in other countries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Moldova have been particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 crisis.

  SMEs do not only struggle with a lack of resilience as they are dealing with the costs of the reduction in global demand, they also lack liquidity, access to capital and tend to stagnate generally.  Many SMEs fear workers’ productivity decline and skills erode as result of the pandemic. Furthermore, access to information, support for improving skills and working conditions including safety and health as well as for restructuring in the face of the COVID-19 crisis are also a problem for many of them.

In response to the challenges micro, small and medium enterprises face, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is launching an information campaign, supported by the European Union under the EU4Business Initiative. The campaign will consist of a series of webinars targeting SMEs between July and December 2020. The campaign will cover the labour issues triggered by the pandemic and SMEs will receive expert advice on how employment relationships can be preserved.

The webinars will cover:

  • Business continuity: response to COVID-19
  • Key business environment challenges in Moldova in the context of the pandemic
  • Partial unemployment vs. lay-offs: an overview of measures agreed on by employers and workers through social dialogue during the pandemic
  • Recovery from COVID-19: Boosting enterprise productivity through skills development with a focus on work-based learning and on sectoral/industry development
  • Responses to COVID-19: key instruments of support for enterprises throughout the crisis.

During the webinars, local and international experts with share their knowledge and answer participants’ questions. The sessions are free of charge, but registration is required. Further details are here: https://www.facebook.com/ebrd.asb.moldova/

Ala Lipciu

Ala Lipciu

ILO
National Coordinator
lipciu@ilo.org
Ms. Ala Lipciu has a long working experience with the International Labour Organization (ILO), serving since 2005 as National Coordinator (NC) for Moldova. The ILO NC mandate involves country-level co-ordination and liaison on behalf of the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Central and Eastern Europe to facilitate and strengthen implementation of the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) in Moldova. Ms. Lipciu provides necessary programming and administrative support to the ILO technical cooperation activities carried out in the country. She also facilitates interagency information sharing and interaction with the UN Country Team in Moldova. She has degrees in public communication and economics. Ms. Lipciu holds master degree on Law, European Social Security from the Katholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She was awarded Master degree in Applied Labour Economics for Development by the University of Turin and the Institute d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Ms. Lipciu has a PhD degree in Economics from the Moldovan Academy of Economic Science.

UN entities involved in this initiative

ILO
International Labour Organization

Goals we are supporting through this initiative