USAID - Moldova Future Technologies Activity (FTA) 2021-2026
Contribution ID : SE-0-SE-6-15148This website displays open data about Swedish aid, which shows when, to whom and for what purpose Swedish aid is paid out, as well as what results it has produced. This page contains information about one of the contributions financed with Swedish aid.
The Future Technologies Activity (FTA) is a five-year project under the lead of USAID, with Swedish financial contribution and implemented by Chemonics. The total budget amounts to USD 32.8 million (equivalent to 275 MSEK) out of which Sweden is contributing 50 million Swedish Krona (equivalent to 6 million USD / close to 20% of the total budget). The goal o...
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The Future Technologies Activity (FTA) is a five-year project under the lead of USAID, with Swedish financial contribution and implemented by Chemonics. The total budget amounts to USD 32.8 million (equivalent to 275 MSEK) out of which Sweden is contributing 50 million Swedish Krona (equivalent to 6 million USD / close to 20% of the total budget). The goal of the FTA is to improve the competitiveness of the leading private sector growth sectors with focus on: 1. Light manufacturing 2. ICT 3. Precision engineering 4. Creative industries 5. Digital media To achieve this goal, two objectives are identified, namely: - Objective 1: Self-sustaining business associations, COEs, and similar institutions that represent and advocate for the needs of their members, in partnership with regional and international associations and investors, expand integration with existing markets and increase access to new markets; and - Objective 2: Companies in targeted sectors improve their competitiveness on Western markets The FTA is supporting inclusion and economic growth of marginalized populations mainly through promoting higher value jobs and opportunities in sectors with high participation of women (e.g., light industry) and youth (e.g., ICT and creative industries) while addressing constraints for women, youth, minorities, and other social groups to enter sectors such as precision engineering and digital media.
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Result
FTA Narrative Report Year 1 (Fiscal year June 23, 2021 to September 30, 2022) Sida considers that, the FTA programme has made good progress towards its goal during the first year of implementation. The FTA programme includes a vast set of activities. It builds on the achievements made during the previous Moldova Competetiveness Programme (MCP). Even though, the FTA was not designed using a full market systems development approach (MSD) in a strict sense, it applies the Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) model, which means that in practice it follows to large extent the flexible iterative approach of an MSD programme. Hence, activities are adjusted to changes and new contextual changes that occurs during the course of its implementation. One such example is the Russian aggression in Ukraine, that has had a large impact on the Moldovan economy during 2022. Below a brief summary of activities and results of Year 1: ICT and Engineering - Supported the Ministry of Economy in legislative amendments to the Moldova IT-Park law, which has expanded the range of enterprises that can be part of the IT-Park to include the creative services sector such as video and audio production and engineering and technical consulting design services for the manufacture industry sector. The Moldova IT-Park has, since its inception in 2019, grown rapidly and today includes about a 1,000 IT-companies. - Supported the Moldova Digital Park - Tracom (initiated by a Moldovan investor and owner of the Moldovan telecom company Starnet), to extend a loan guarantee to facilitate the phase 2 of the Digital Park which hosts start-ups in the areas of fintech, healthcare, gaming and interactive entertainment. I the phase 2 it will increase its focus on sustainable and green operations. - Provide the Technical University of Moldova (UTM) with a USD 382,000 grant to upgrades its engineering curriculum and excellence centres, such as UTM's Research and Training Centre CIRCLE, which includes topics such as Interactive Systems, Robotics and Control Systems Engineering. - Continued the work on the excellence centre and innovation hub Nortek at the University of Balti, which gathers a wide range of stakeholders in the region, from academia, private and public sector. Light Industry - The FTA partner in the fashion/textile industry held several events to promote local businesses and their exposure on domestic markets as well as towards export markets. These events have to a large extent become self-sustained are today mainly funded by the partners themselves with the FTA providing target strategic technical assistance support. - Zip House, the innovation hub for fashion/textile at the UTM, together with the branch organisation of Moldovan owned textile industries, APIUS, held a number of events to promote young designers. At the "UNZIP Moldovan Designers event", which was attended by the President Maia Sandu, more than 600 participants joined and where 16 well-known brands and 11 new designers where high-lighted. - FTA continued to work on positioning the "Din Inima" brand, which used by the Moldovan partners to market products design and made in Moldova. - FTA launched the Smart Factory and the Omnichannel programmes to promote increased social and environmental sustainability, efficiency and digitalisation. Creative and Digital Media - FTA launched an ecosystem-level support by working with partners to advocate for inclusion of the creative industries within government priorities and sector plans, which contributed to the inclusion of the creative industries as a new sector in the Moldovan economy. - FTA in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Private sector launched the "Creative Moldova Programme" with the aim to further develop the creative industry sector and increase the orientation towards the EU and EU oriented reforms for the sector. - Grants to the COR association (The branch organisation of Creative Industry Companies) which manages two innovation hubs/excellence centres: Artcor and Mediacor in collaboration with universities and other associates. The grants included: communication support, creative media education and entrepreneurship support. - Worked with the Moldovan Government to make amendments to the educational code, which enabled the launch of new educational Bachelors' level programme in New Media, Game Design and Animation, which did not previously exist within the Moldovan university education. - A major milestone, in building Moldova's ecosystem for digital media, was completed with the inauguration of the Mediacor centres of excellence, located within the State University campus. - Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the FTA in collaboration with USAID and Sweden, convened the COR Association to support the Government of Moldova to develop the "Moldova for Peace Campaign" that includes a wide series of activities, including combatting fake news and hate speech, and providing consolidated information on services and support to refugees. FTA also used some of their existing partnerships to provide information and organised events with the aim to integrate refugees into Moldova's business communities.
The Future Technologies Activity has as overarching Goal to Improve the competitiveness of the leading private sector growth sectors. In support of this goal the following objectives have been identified: Objective 1: Self-sustaining business associations, COEs and similar institutions that represent and advocate for the needs of their members, in partnership with regional and international associations and investors, expand integration with existing markets and increase access to new markets. Objective 2: Companies in targeted sectors improve their competitiveness on Western markets. FTA will promote and advance the digital, creative and green economy and apply the following implementing principles: - Building local systems and maximizing private sector engagement (SPE). - Driving Innovation to amplify effects across sectors, promote sustainability, and propel private sector growth. - Maximizing inclusion and economic growth of marginalized populations. - Maintaining flexibility and consistently reinforcing adaptive management practices. - Sustainable results for the economy and the environment.
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