Finanțarea antreprenorială în Republica Moldova: opinia antreprenorilor

Abstract

Access to financial resources is perceived as a crucial component of entrepreneurship. Due to insufficient equity capital, enterprises have the need to access external sources. Therefore, it is important to determine the accessibility and difficulties experienced by entrepreneurs in accessing sources of finance. The article aims at analysing the contribution of financing component to the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Republic of Moldova. For this purpose, following research methods were used: analysis of statistical data and questionnaire-based survey of entrepreneurs, conducted in 2022. Indicators characterized both the ease of access to different financial sources, and the level of requirements regarding the guarantees requested by financial institutions when accessing a loan. The data shows that entrepreneurs evaluated the highest access to loans from non-bank and bank financial institutions. Nevertheless, the analysis of the questionnaire data reveals negative evaluations of the indicators regarding the level of requirements on guarantees. Thus, high requirements on guarantees for loans cause difficulties in accessing financing for local enterprises. Despite the measures taken, a number of entrepreneurs noticed difficulties in accessing financing within state programs. The biggest difficulties enterprises face in accessing venture capital. The emergence of new financing sources has substantially increased the financing options available to businesses. At the same time, access to electronic platforms for attracting financing (crowdfunding, cryptocurrencies, etc.) are not sufficiently developed in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Republic of Moldova and require a special attention.