Washington, 11 June 1997 (RFE/RL) - The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) has approved a nine million dollar credit to Moldova to expand a program of training business managers in how to work in a competitive market economy.
The bank says the virtual non-existence of a supportive network for industrial small and medium-sized enterprises is "a particularly acute problem in Moldova" because of the country's small domestic market and traditional agricultural specialization.
A similar training project funded with an IDA loan in February helped radically restructure 15 enterprises. The new, larger program will train at least 400 managers from 200 private enterprises in all aspects of enterprise management, marketing, and computer skills.
The bank says such training is essential or a majority of the country's private enterprises will be forced into bankruptcy in the next few years.
Long-term, says bank project manager Vladimir Kreacic, it is hoped that up to 2,000 Moldovan managers will take courses and the best 400 will receive on the job training in western nations.