Cahul Business Summit, organised with the EU and Team Europe support: financing opportunities, digital transformation and tourism potential in the southern region

The potential for economic development of the Cahul region was discussed by the guests of the „Cahul Business Summit”! The event brought together government officials, national experts, entrepreneurs, private sector representatives and all those interested in the economic and digital development of the region. The forum was organised by the City Hall of Cahul, with the support of the EU4Moldova project: Startup City Cahul, implemented by ATIC, with the financial assistance of the European Union, in partnership with Sweden.

At the investment session, the value chain and developing clusters in the Cahul region were analysed, as well as the tech and innovation potential for the Southern part of the country. The favourable geographical location of the Cahul region offers more development prospects for southern Moldova, which currently generates 7% of the country’s GDP.

This indicator is constituted by the potential of the key areas of the region, of which agriculture has a share of 23%, transport represents 7%, tourism – 6%, and IT field – 2%. In support of the development of the region, several projects are being carried out in Cahul, with the financial assistance of the European Union. One of them is „EU4Moldova: Key Regions”.

The digital impact transformation of the Cahul region has all the necessary components: advanced infrastructure, the commitment of the authorities, development partners, as well as a community ready to contribute to this goal. The digitization priorities of Cahul were presented by Stella Bădin, deputy mayor of Cahul, responsible for digitization, in a panel of the summit.

„We want Cahul to become more than a ‚smart city’, we want it to become the digital capital of the Republic of Moldova. In this regard, we had discussions with all the important actors, who informed us about their needs and the services they provide. For several months I worked on digitizing a wide range of services, including: one-stop shops, smart street lighting, admission to pre-school institutions, and more. We aimed that, the „Smart City” platform to intelligently integrate more public services, facilitate people’s access and ensure transparency. We continue to work in this direction.”,

stated Stella Badin, Deputy Mayor of Cahul.

In Cahul, the Electronic Development Agency is continuously developing several digital services that will benefit residents across the south of the country. These include: Msign, MobileSign, Your Business Office, and more.

In another panel of the event, the digital opportunities for the development of the tourism industry were discussed and the application of several digital routes with different tourist routes in the Cahul region was presented. Each of them offers representative landscapes for the South of the country: natural landscapes, boarding houses, wineries, etc. The discussions at the event also focused on the presentation of the VIA Cahul cluster – an instrument of economic development of the Cahul region, which aims to attract over 40 actors interested in tourism development in this region, representing tourism businesses, public authorities, institutions research-development-innovation and catalytic institutions. The specialization of the VIA Cahul Cluster is rural tourism, connected with other forms of tourism: spa and health – in Cahul – and agrotourism, cultural tourism, leisure, adventure and wine tourism – in the area of the Biosphere Reserve „Prutul de Jos”, included in UNESCO heritage.