Moldovan companies have invested 1.2 billion lei on innovation last year. Money was spent on launching new products, services and marketing. More than half of the investment was for equipment and software procurement, nearly 40 percent for R & D and six percent for patents, licenses, and copyrights.

The highest spending on innovation was recorded in manufacturing - over 630 million lei, followed by transport and storage sector by almost 240 million lei, and by the information and communication sector - by over 200 million of lei.

The launch of new products and services has provided companies with a turnover of over 5 billion lei. The largest turnover was registered in manufacturing - 3.3 billion lei, but also in the information and communication sector - almost 1.4 billion lei.

Totally, 673 enterprises carried out innovation activities during 2017.

The most active in this respect were small enterprises which constituted 60 per cent. Medium-sized enterprises and large enterprises are spending less budget on innovation.