The Ministry of Economy and Trade (MET) seeks to liberalise the salaries concurrently with the presidential initiatives on economy liberalisation. Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Sergiu Sainciuc stated Thursday, April 12, at a roundtable within the framework of the business-forum “The Sate and Business Environment in Moldova”, that the salaries should be increased after the Government will work out projects intended to operate amendments to the Salary Law of 2002 by which the barriers regarding wage rates would be excluded. “We will set the base pay for the first qualification category in the real sector, upon agreement with the Patronages and Trade Unions, expecting that other conditions for salary would be excluded”, Sainciuc said. According to him, if the authorities do not undertake concrete measures to motivate employees, they will lose the remainder salary earners too. Although in the last six years the real salaries rose 2.8-fold, Sainciuc made reference to the statistics that show that the average salary in the neighbour states is much higher than in Moldova. The Minister of Economy and Trade, Igor Dodon, mentioned during the same event that the number of people able to work in Moldova is decreasing, while the possibility to employ immigrants is officially limited to about 2,000 annually. Under these circumstances, he says, “we must ask ourselves what shall we do if the economy grows and investors will show increased interest to come to Moldova when will have workforce anymore?” According to Dodon, a number of potential investors are willing to pay Moldovans working abroad as they are paid abroad, just to see them back home. As he says, some foreign investors have already started to create a database incorporating Moldovans working abroad in order to make them job offers in Moldova. MET plans to create until 2009 about 300,000 new jobs and increase the monthly average wage to USD 300. The new workplaces could be created, according to ministers, by the numerous trans-national companies that intend to open enterprises in Moldova. The trans-national companies’ interest in Moldovan market is explained by the regimes of free trade that Moldova has with the EU and CIS countries.