EBRD and EU support leasing for Moldovan healthcare and other sectors
Antiquated medical labs and services are a serious problem for Moldova’s healthcare sector. Much of the equipment in hospitals or used by doctors dates from Soviet times, which can make it hard to detect patients’ illnesses.
“It used to be really difficult for us to detect certain bacteria which can cause illnesses,” said Dr Sergiu Rață, Director of Imunotehnomed. “Purchasing new medical equipment was not an option for us. It is very expensive and our company would not have been able to afford it.”
Buying new equipment was unnecessary, however. The medical services provider found a partner in BT Leasing, who offered a €82,500 leasing contract to acquire a spectrometer, a specialised diagnostic device.
The company is based in Moldova’s capital, Chișinău, but treats patients from across the country. It is now the first in Moldova that can identify many kinds of bacteria using the so-called MALDI-TOF method, with minimum required tissue samples, within 15 minutes.
BT Leasing in turn benefitted from a €2 million loan from the EBRD which helped the business expand its leasing portfolio, establish a more diverse funding base and ultimately develop the leasing market in Moldova. The EU complemented the loan with risk-sharing to the amount of €200,000.
“This has made an enormous difference to our daily work,” explained Dr Rață. “We can now detect diseases, such as salmonella infections, osteomyelitis, different types of meningitis and acute inflammatory processes more accurately and in good time, so that patients can obtain treatment and recover much more quickly.”
Access to efficient leasing services has many advantages. Providing better, modern healthcare to Moldovans is only one of them, explained Britta Bochert, Associate Banker at the EBRD.
“There is a wide range of businesses that make good use of such services: logistics companies that are in constant need of vehicles to transport products, agribusinesses that need access to machines to harvest their crop more efficiently, and other manufacturers that require equipment to produce their goods,” she said
“Different financial products suit different companies and help them grow in the long run. It is the variety that counts in this case.”