Promoting Digital Business Skills in the Republic of Moldova

The Republic of Moldova (Moldova hereafter) has made digitalisation a policy priority. The country is currently preparing its Digital Transformation Strategy 2023-30, which will emphasise digital literacy, as well as digital business skills, with a view to improving private sector competitiveness. Digitalisation has already brought significant benefits to Moldova, where ICT has been one of the most dynamic sectors over the past years; yet Moldovan firms in non IT sectors remain at the beginning of their digitalisation journey. Skills shortages are a major barrier in that regard, particularly affecting SMEs who encounter more difficulties in attracting and retaining skilled workers, as well as up skilling or reskilling their workforces. Building on previous OECD work on digitalisation policies, the OECD provided guidance to Moldova throughout 2022 on how to build a conducive ecosystem and set the right policies to further advance the development and uptake of digital business skills among SMEs. This report presents an overview of those issues, looking at 1) the institutional and policy framework; 2) skills assessment and anticipation tools; and 3) SME specific support for digital skills development.