Emerging Europe

🇲🇩 Did you know that the Moldova Innovation Technology Park offers residents: 🔸 Flexibility to #workfromanywhere in #Moldova 🔸 #Remoteworking from abroad 🔸 A #simplifiedtax administration with a single 7% tax on sales revenue, replacing 7 other taxes 🔸 #Easyemployment of foreign nationals through the IT Visa Programme 🔸 No #payrolltaxes for the employer or its employees. Plus, #salaries are not subject to any salary withholdings — the gross and net salaries are equal, while employees enjoy full state #healthinsurance and limited #socialsecurity benefits. 👉🏼 Get your hands on a wealth of insight about Europe's next tech powerhouse: https://hubs.la/Q02vtVbB0 The IT Investment Guide for Moldova features not only desktop research, but insight from 970 C-level executives across 7 markets, 218 MITP residents, and 20 IT leaders from across the globe. Western NIS Enterprise Fund USAID Invest Moldova Agency Startup Moldova Dumitru Alaiba Marina Bzovîi Irina Tolstousov Natalia Bejan

For the She's Next Empowered by Visa initiative, we surveyed 2,000 female entrepreneurs and held in-depth interviews with over 75 female business leaders across 11 different markets. Key Finding #2 — EDUCATION IS KEY FOR SCALING A BUSINESS Any woman can start a small business, but when it comes to scaling up our research suggests that the higher the level of education, the more successful the female entrepreneur will be. 🇬🇧 PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH Only 32% of women whose businesses operate locally have at least a limited working proficiency in English. When we look at female entrepreneurs operating globally, this number more than doubles to 67.4% 🎓 DEGREES Women conducting business internationally are usually more educated with 69% having at least a bachelor’s degree. For comparison, for local businesses, this figure is about 38%. 👉🏼 Want to discover more insight? Get your copy of the Female Entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus report: https://hubs.la/Q02vhTMs0 #ShesNext #Visa #EmergingEurope #femaleentrepreneurship #womeninbusiness Cristina Doros Olena Gavinska

Landlocked #Tajikistan recently featured prominently in two key reports—one highlighting its stellar #growth and another naming it as one of the least #democratic countries in the world.  Be it the development of new, high-rise apartment blocks, or the proliferation of premium coffee shops, tea houses and restaurants, a short stroll around the centre of Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe suggests a city —and a country— on the up.  Indeed, one of few countries in the region to stay in the black during the Covid-19 pandemic (growth was 4.4% in 2020), Tajikistan—on paper at least—has since been #Europe and #CentralAsia’s champion of #economicgrowth: 9.3% in 2021, 8% in 2022, 8.3% in 2023. It is also—except for basket case Turkmenistan—the least free country. https://hubs.la/Q02tRs4X0

Last week, our founding partner Andrew Wrobel hosted EIT Food's event focused on encouraging more #femaleentrepreneurs to come up with #agrifood solutions across the CEE region. The challenge is enormous. Currently, there are 2.2 million female entrepreneurs in the region, and 20% of them employ staff. At the same time, women receive just 1% of the #capital deployed to entrepreneurs, while 5% goes to mixed-sex founders and 94% to all-male teams. Furthermore, 93% of the #VCfunds investing in the region are represented by men. Practitioners —including EIT Food's Richard Zaltzman and Marja-Liisa Meurice Pihlstrom, plus Aleksandra Niżyńska, Ralitsa Zhekova, Vadim Petrunin, Milica Trajković, PMP, Elina Zheleva ✈ and Michał Misza Piosik joined the discussion to identify solutions and share #bestpractices that could help include the agrifood aspect in women’s entrepreneurial support programmes and gender in agrifood entrepreneurship programmes. Here are 5 key areas that can make a strong impact: 👩🏻🔧 Strengthening self-confidence  ➕ Peer-to-peer support, mentorship and role models  🌳 Focusing on rural areas   📈 Educating venture capital funds  📊 Gathering the necessary data  https://hubs.la/Q02v0lKs0 EIT - European Institute of Innovation and Technology Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates

Moldova offers a #singletax on sales income to residents of the Moldova Innovation Technology Park (MITP) and their employees, set at a favourable rate of 7%. This tax streamlines the taxation process by replacing seven other taxes and fees, including #corporatetax, #personalincome tax, #socialsecurity and #healthinsurance contributions at the level of employer and employee, local taxes, road taxes, and real estate taxes. 👉🏼 Get your hands on a wealth of insight about Europe's next tech powerhouse: https://hubs.la/Q02tNFQZ0 💡 The IT Investment Guide for Moldova features not only desktop research but insight from: —970 C-level executives across 7 markets —218 MITP residents — 20 IT leaders from across the globe, including Mark Angus David D. Lynda Arsenault Anne Bibb William Carson Wiktor Doktór Loren Moss Olivier Prado Romek Lubaczewski Peter Ryan Stephen Loynd Irina Strajescu George Teodorescu Elias van Herwaarden Olga SURUGIU Joel Walker Moldova Innovation Technology Park Western NIS Enterprise Fund USAID Chemonics International Dumitru Alaiba Moldova ICT Summit

“Investors and venture capital funds ignoring female founders are simply acting to the detriment of their own businesses.”-  Andrew Wrobel from the Emerging Europe 💡 Reflecting on the EIT Food's insightful event hosted last week on 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫? ✨ The event discussions emphasized several key takeaways, notably the importance of strengthening self-confidence, fostering peer-to-peer support and mentorship, focusing on rural areas, educating venture capital funds, and gathering necessary data to highlight and address challenges faced by women in agrifood #entrepreneurship. 🏆 Initiatives targeting these areas are essential to achieve a more inclusive and supportive ecosystem for women in the #agrifood sector. Let's continue this important conversation and work together towards empowering more women to succeed in agrifood sector! 👨🌾🌱 #WomenInAgrifood #GenderEquality #Entrepreneurship 👉 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dpr6rdFu

For the She's Next Empowered by Visa in partnership with Emerging Europe initiative, we surveyed 2,000 female entrepreneurs and held in-depth interviews with over 75 female business leaders across 11 different markets. KEY FINDING #1 — What drives female entrepreneurs Women in the region want a better life, and their own company is a means to achieve this goal. Here are the 3 main reasons they embark on the entrepreneurial path: 💶 50.3% to make more money 👩🏼💼 30.8% to work for myself, not for somebody else’s company 🎯 20.5% to fulfil my professional dream 💡 The research results show that there are, however, significant differences between age groups A willingness to earn more was mentioned by the highest number – 53.1% – of respondents between the ages of 25 and 34, decreasing after that to as low as 42% after the age of 54. In contrast, willingness to work for themselves is mentioned only by 26% of women between 18 and 24 and already by 36.2% – between 45 and 54. 👉🏼 Get your copy of the Female Entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus report here https://hubs.la/Q02tBZkv0 #ShesNext #Visa #EmergingEurope #femaleentrepreneurship #womeninbusiness

Investors and venture capital funds ignoring female founders are simply acting to the detriment of their own businesses. Here are my takeaways from the event I hosted earlier this week EIT Food, thanks for having me! #femaleentrepreneurship #agrifood #venturecapital #management #lastword Emerging Europe https://lnkd.in/eZCNjf2N

The international IT community might be less familiar with the potential and opportunities offered by #Moldovan tech and start-ups. This does not mean they do not exist. On the contrary, the #ITsector is booming. A lot of that growth can be attributed to the country’s commitment to developing knowledge-based economy and progressing #digitalisation. We are delighted to have produced the IT Investment Guide with the Moldova Innovation Technology Park. It is meant to not only showcase Moldova's IT advantages but also the vibrant spirit of #innovation and #collaboration. Download a copy here https://lnkd.in/eHAqBUzy Dumitru Alaiba, Natalia Dontu, Natalia Bejan, Olga Melniciuc, Nicoleta Colomeeț, Plinschi Catalina, Lynda Arsenault, Anne Bibb, Shelli Ryan, APR, Fellow PRSA, Alexandru Gozun, Romek Lubaczewski, Olivier Prado, Elias van Herwaarden, Thomas Ohr, Sergiu Rabii, Joel Walker, Peter Ryan, William Carson, Jon Yarlett, Loren Moss, Stella Jemna, Kirk Laughlin, Matt Kendall, David Rumble, Steve Weston, Stephen Loynd, Wiktor Doktór, Mark Angus, George Teodorescu, Olga SURUGIU, Russ Shaw CBE, Kerry Hallard, Traci Freeman (she / her), Debi Hamill, Lannie Medina, Ann Harts, Irina Tolstousov, Emerging Europe

A new threat to Hungary's Orbán The largest protest against #ViktorOrbán and his #Fidesz party for several years took place in Budapest on April 6, attended by a crowd whose numbers ran well into the 100s of thousands. It was notably different from previous anti-Orbán demonstrations. There was nary an EU nor opposition flag in sight and the crowd was in large part older than would be expected. It was a sign that amid economic strains and shifting political loyalties, even Orbán's former allies and supporters are now ready for change: https://hubs.la/Q02sxdTS0