Chisinau City Hall extended until January 20, 2007, the deadline set for the contest on presenting the offers for the public partnership project regarding the building of 300 urban transport stages by giving possibility to place advertisments. The reason – a single investor, “EPA MEDIA” Austrian firm announced its intention to participate in the contest and presented a single offer, though the advertising agencies in Chisinau had been announced about the contest. Several members of the contest commission said on Thursday’s sitting, December 28 that the offers will be examined even though a single investor participates. The proposal to extend the contest till the end of January and to expect offers on the part of other potential investors came from the Commission’s head, interim mayor Vasile Ursu, who considers that in this way there will be no ground for the municipal councillors to accuse the City Hall of certain interests. The representatives of the Austrian firm stated that in this case they take back their offer, because they do not trust the local authorities of Chisinau. The announcement revealing the City Hall’s intention concerning the private public partnership project was published in “The Official Monitor” on December 16, while on December 28 the context commission had to open the offers. But during the sitting, the Commission’s members discussed in front of the investor about the necessity of a concept on the issue of placing publicity in the city, necessity of certain public discussions with the advertising agencies in Chisinau or implementation of a pilot-project, as well as about the relations between City Hall and the CMC. This fact has astounded representatives of “EPA MEDIA”, who came from Austria to participate in the opening of the offers, after 4-month negotiations with the City Hall. The City Hall’s representatives said that the over 170 companies that provide advertising services pay about 1 million lei in the municipal budget and have no interest in building 300 stages. The Austrian firm’s representative mentioned that if the commission had examined the proposed offer, it saw that “EPA MEDIA” assumed its obligation to invest 100 million lei in next three years. Incomes of 6 million lei would have been sent to the municipal budget in 2007 and 17 million lei in 2008 on the account of the advertisement, including the 300 stages that had to be built by the investor. The CMC rejected a bill regarding the conclusion of an investment contract with “EPA MEDIA” in early November. The councillors decided, first of all, to approve the Regulations regarding the visual publicity in Chisinau and to set up a special commission that would examine the possibility of organising an investment contest in which the Austrian firm could participate as well. As the councillors state, this thing would have done the transaction more transparent. If the Austrian firm does not participate in the contest that was extended to January 20, Chisinau will fail in investments of about EUR 8 mln in next three years due to due to divergences between City Hall and Municipal Council. According to the City Hall’s representatives, the investors do not carry out any infrastructure development project in the capital at present.