Agency for Restructuring and Enterprise Assistance (ARIA) - Republic of Moldova

Source: World Bank

In Republic of Moldova, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, the Agency for Restructuring and Enterprise Assistance (ARIA) was created as part of two large Private Sector Development Projects financed by the World Bank, with funding totaling US$63 million Part of the program was for managers and skilled blue-collar workers to spend some time working in enterprises in more advanced countries. In these programs, it is important that the more advanced countries not be too advanced; otherwise the experience will have little applicability back in the home country. In the case of Republic of Moldova, this meant selecting a country not in the west, but in the "near-west" of central Europe such as Hungary, Poland, or Slovenia.

In the case of Slovenia, ARIA had consulting services from a Slovene organization with restructuring experience. Out of that relationship, a temporary labor migration scheme emerged that proved to be commercially viable on its own. Groups of skilled blue-collar workers would be selected in Republic of Moldova according to certain criteria. They would be financed by their companies to be placed for six months working in Slovene companies and living together in apartments. The workers would be paid at minimum Slovene rates which were over five times their usual wages. At the end of the six months, they would have acquired not only industrial and technical skills but also a nest-egg of savings. Some workers would buy a cheap used car in Slovenia and then drive back to Republic of Moldova. Others would use their savings for investments back in Republic of Moldova.

Another consequence of the program was some subcontracting and investment of Slovene companies back into Republic of Moldova. Some workers came for several six month periods. Eventually the Slovene hosts realized that they could subcontract some of the low-end items to be produced back in Republic of Moldova by the workers they had trained—perhaps with some special machinery supplied from Slovenia. Thus the "trade" in the form of temporary fixed-term migration leads to trade in goods and eventually to capital investment. Worker placements were so successful for both parties that a company was formed in Slovenia to run the program entirely on a private basis.

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