The recent changes made to the legislation on internal trade endanger the development prospects of autonomic entities. They favor only one economic entity that can cope with the new legal provisions, consider experts of the Institute for Economic Development and European Policies, who analyzed the given amendments, Info-Prim Neo reports. Under the provisions that were passed by Parliament at the end of 2012, all the wholesale transactions must be performed by bank transfer. In a news conference on January 25, expert of the institute Alexandru Fala said the economic entities from rural areas cannot obey this provision as most of the villages do not have bank offices. The changes also say that those who sell wholesale must have an area of at least 3,000 square meters, parking lot for several hundred cars and at least 15,000 items on shelves. The Institute’s experts said that there is only one company in Moldova that can meet these conditions. Thus, it seems that the law favors a certain company. Alexandru Fala said the new provisions are restrictive in character, limit competition and create a serious obstacle to doing business. This law has a series of negative effects. “The prices will rise. The SME sector will be affected and the number of unemployed persons will increase following the diminution of wholesale trade. The residents from rural areas will be provided with goods in insufficient qualities and the volume of contraband will grow,” he stated. According to him, in such a situation many operators involved in wholesale trade will be forced to set up retail units at wholesale storehouses or to make all the payments by bank transfer. This will cause serious difficulties to businesses, which can stop work or go bankrupt. The experts of the Institute for Economic Development and European Policies consider that such results of the legislative process compromise Moldova’s efforts to do economic reforms and will reduce the competitiveness of the national economy.