The establishment of business associations will allow business people to solve many of their current problems, says Raisa Bejan, vice president of Sugar Producers' Union in Moldova. “Unfortunately, in many spheres there are no business associations, which could represent business agents in front of state authorities such as the Ministry of Economy and other institutions”, she said during a round table organized by the Ministry of Economy, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Bejan, because of the lack of these associations, business people often try illegal methods to solve their problems, like bribing officials. “That's how corruption and other unwanted phenomena occur”, Raisa Bejan stressed. The panel of experts agreed the initiative should belong to business agents. Nevertheless, many of them admitted the Government could stimulate the creation of business associations through programs of technical assistance and other tools. Valentina Veverita, head of the Department of policies for the development of small and medium businesses and liberal professions, said there had been attempts to merge several smaller associations into a bigger one, but all of them failed because of various reasons. “There are cases when such associations exist, but their position is neglected by ministries”, mentioned Valentin Sascov, department manager within the National Federation of Farmers in Moldova. He spoke about product associations. “Their position is often disregarded, although decisions affect them directly. It would be great if their opinion was considered when negotiating projects of foreign funding”, he said. Business and Government representatives agreed to improve the mutual trust between the two sides and collaborate more efficiently.