The establishment of a cash centre in Moldova Note: This project has been cancelled, because, the joint venture could not implement the intended services and activities, due to changes in local law.Over 90% of money transactions in Moldova are done by cash. The sorting and counting of this cash is all done by hand and national cash management is not automated. This leads to large un-clarity of cash in circulation. Moreover, cash money is of low quality (due to bad manual sorting of to-be-recycled banknotes), track-and-tracing is impossible and safety of money is not secured. Due to the lack of insight of the position of money in the chain, a lot of transit is done to the National Central Bank of Moldova to manage the in- and outflow of money and to keep sufficient cash money flow in the economy. This is very inefficient. Automatization in the cash industry is necessary for the sector to further develop. Therefore, the applicant Cortex BV and the local partner Media Security SRL want to set up a joint venture cash centre in Chisinau to bring the money sector to a new level. This will lead to more efficiency, safety and security in the sector. Cash sorting and counting, which are now manually done at banks, the central national bank and at large retailers (e.g. supermarkets), will be taken over by the cash centre, so that their clients can focus at their core business. Though the project will not have direct social impact, it will largely change the cash sector and might have large spin-off effects in terms of a more attractive investment climate due to cash safety and improved cash circulation management.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)There will be a collaboration with the University of Chisinau. Two trainees per year will be accepted. Furthermore, the company will work according to ECB (Nederlandse Chartale Distributie overeenkomst) and NBM (National Bank of Moldova) regulations for cash machinery and financial transparency. Also, the cash centre will obtain ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. During verification the partners handed in a CSR policy for the joint venture (relating to HRM, anti-corruption, human rights, safety and the environment). There is also a HIV/AIDS training planned.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsFringe benefits include a social security package, medical support, transport services, 10 paid holiday, training in personal development, free access to fitness room, free warm meal each day, working clothes, freedom to associate and application of an anti-discrimination policy. The partners pay largely above the subsistence minimum which at least is 294% of the minimum wages.•	Innovation / Transfer of knowledgeCash counting and sorting is currently done manually at banks and large retailers. In the project counting and sorting will be automated and will be more efficient and consistent. Moreover, additional processing features will be added: scanning of bank codes (what leads to cash safety), rejection of false money, track-and-tracing of money by means of controls in cash movement (based on software technologies) and distribution of cash at cash centre level (surplus and shortage of cash can be balanced among clients and is supported by software (banking) systems) and cash distribution will become more transparent.•	Chain effectsImpact on local suppliersOnly limited services will be supplied locally (internet, financial consulting services, water, electricity, insurance).Impact on local customers or consumersBanks and retailers will be able to outsource bank notes handling which leads to more efficiency and more security possibilities. Bank notes will be of higher quality and will be able to be traced.•	Impact on the sectorThe company will engage with governments, business associations and Universities (Chamber of Commerce's, European Union Delegation, Intergard, Technical University of Chisinau) to share knowledge. Two trainees will be trained each year.•	Position of women33% (6 FTE) of the workforce is female. Women get 100% paid maternity leave and 20% of their working hours to breastfeed in the first year after giving birth. The goal of the project is to establish a cash center to process 312 million banknotes per year in order to count, number, scan (for security issues) and sort cash.