The pandemic crisis seriously affected the state-owned companies in Moldova. Almost 90% of these report declines in revenues and, consequently, almost 50% of them witness higher indebtedness, says a study conducted by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” that is quoted by IPN.

According to the study, the COVID-19 crisis affected the state-owned companies at other levels too. Almost 40% of the representatives of these companies said that since March they have witnessed difficulties owing to disruptions in the supply chain or diminution of the demand for products and services, while 11% of the entities were affected by the lower labor productivity.

However, 22% of the state-owned companies weren’t affected by the crisis, like those that benefit from support from such state programs as “Good Roads” that could maintain the turnover for the companies operating in this sector, said one of the study authors Dumitru Pîntea.

Almost half of the state-owned companies weren’t ready to cope with an eventual economic crisis. “Evidently, no one could anticipate such a crisis that necessitated the introduction of social distancing and quarantine measures, but we here refer rather to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic,” explained Dumitru Pîntea.

In the current conditions, government strategies for providing support to state-owned companies should be worked out immediately. “Some of the measures can be implemented swiftly, such as the consolidation of the cash flow, while other measures can last longer, like the attraction of primary investors,” said co-author Vadim Gumene.

In Moldova, there are 272 state-owned companies that employ 6.2% of all the salary earners in Moldova and have a total turnover of more than 23.6 million lei.

The study “COVID-19 Crisis: State-Owned Companies between Uncertainty and Opportunities” was carried out by “Expert-Grup” with financial support from Soros Foundation Moldova.