ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGEST

ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGEST April 27- May 3. Most important Economy & Business news by IPN

● MONDAY, April 27

Premier Chicu: Agricultural year continues to be in danger

Given the severe shortage of precipitation, the big danger to the agricultural year persists, said Prime Minister Ion Chicu. According to him, actions to reduce the risks to the food security will be considered this week. After the meeting of the senior state officials, Premier Chicu said that the authorities’ attention this week will be oriented to the economy. All the measures to support the business community adopted in Parliament last week are to be implemented. The situation in agriculture and food safety is to be seriously debated, including at meetings with farmers. According to Premier Chicu, discussions will also be held with representatives of the business community so as to coordinate the resumption of the suspended economic activities.

● TUESDAY, April 28

NBM approves new members of Board of “Moldindconbank”

The Executive Board of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) confirmed Herbert Stepic and Thomas Michael Higgins, who have distinct experience in the international financial-banking sector, as members of the Board of BC “Moldindconbank” S.A. According to the NBM, Herbert Stepic asserted himself as an expert of a high professional value and probity, working during over 30 years for the Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and another nine states. He also worked in the Executive Board of the Raiffeisen Bank International AG in Vienna and was a member of the Board of the banks of the Raiffeisen Group. Euromoney magazine, in its jubilee edition, named him one of the architects of the transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Thomas Michael Higgins also has a rich experience of 20 years in the financial-banking sector. During the last few years, he served as a member of the Supervisory Board of Tokuda Bank AD., Bulgaria. He also works as the vice president of the Board of Directors of “EMP Invest Bulgaria” J.S.C. and earlier served as a member of the Supervisory Board of the investment company “BM Leasing” J.S.C., Bulgaria, “Bulgarian American Credit Bank” J.S.C. With the two new members, the composition of the Board of BC “Moldindconbank” S.A. is complete and will work according to the modern standards and the bank’s objectives aligned with these in a well-coordinated professional view. 

NAER proposes reducing price of electricity supplied by “Energocom”

The Administration Board of the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) suggested approving the regulated price of electric power delivered by the central electricity supplier SA “Energocom” at 1.35 lei/kWh, by 0.23 lei/kWh lower than the current tariff of 1.58 lei/kWh. The informative note to the draft decision says that SA “Energocom” presented to the NAER the required documents and asked to approve the regulated price of electric power for 2020 at 1.60 lei/kWh. Based on the information presented by the company, the Electric and Renewable Energy Department determined the regulated price of power at 1.35 lei/kWh. Respectively, it suggested that the Agency’s Administration Board should approve this.

PPPDA suggests measures to alleviate consequences of drought and frosts

The PPPDA seeks the approval of the regulations on the use of groundwater for irrigating farmland. The authorities are also urged to ask the foreign partners to provide financial assistance for overcoming the natural crisis. Alexandru Slusari noted that the Agriculture Development Fund should be increased by at least 500 million lei for making direct payments to agricultural companies, including the anima-breeding ones, which were affected by the drought and frosts. Last week the party spoke about the possibility of identifying such funds by contracting the program for supporting companies that weren’t affected by the disaster, such as supermarkets, oil companies and others. The party proposes that the companies affected by the drought and frosts should be exempted from paying the income tax. Another proposal is to allow the given companies not to pay taxes and contributions into the national public budget for at least six months. The PPPDA also suggests purchasing at least 150,000 tonnes of food wheat and 150,000 tonnes of corn at advantageous prices for famers for the state reserve.

Bread could be more expensive in autumn, expert

The price of bread could rise in autumn as the effects of the economic crisis are accentuated by the drought and frosts. A part of the crops could be compromised. It is a difficult year with repercussions for the economy and the population and the forecasts are gloomy, programs director at the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” Viorel Chivriga stated in the program “15 minutes of economic realism”. According to Viorel Chivriga, there are two risk factors that determine the development of the agricultural sector and have repercussions for the vegetal sector and international trade in agrifood products - the severe drought that has persisted for over half a year and the insufficient water reserves, and the frosts that affected the stone fruit trees and a part of crops. If the drought continues, the vegetable and grain producers will also be affected and the most serious losses will be sustained by those who didn’t insure the crops, who are poorly equipped and who didn’t fully use the crop growing technology and also by the farmers who ventured to create multiannual plantations. “It is preferable to avoid the situation of 2003-2004, when the wheat harvest was slightly over 100,000 tones,” stated Viorel Chivriga.

● WEDNESDAY, April 29

Wheat harvest projected to be by 40-50% lower

Prime Minister Ion Chicu said the agricultural year is expected to be very difficult owing to drought. “Preliminary estimates show the country’s food security at this stage is not in danger as there are sufficient supplies in storehouses and in the state reserve,” the official stated at the beginning of the April 29 meeting of the Cabinet. Premier Chicu said that he had discussions with expert, members of the academia and agricultural producers. It is already clear that the agricultural sector will be affected by this drought. The southern districts of Moldova will be hit the worst. Central Moldova is partially affected, while the northern districts are affected to a lesser extent.

Seven companies with historical debts of about 8m lei to employees

Seven business entities owe about 8 million lei to employees. This sum represents historical debts to 226 employees, the State Labor Inspectorate says in an annual report. The inspections carried out by labor inspectors last year showed the employers most often commit violations of the legal norms concerning the setting of salaries and salary payment periods. Nine planned inspections and 47 unplanned inspections were carried out last year at companies where the salary arrears totaled 14.977 million lei for 1,106 employees. The labor inspectors drew up reports with deadlines for clearing the salary arrears. As many as 111 persons who worked illegally were found at 41 companies and 29 employers-private individuals. Of these, 28 were women and ten were children. In these cases, the inspectors compiled 72 reports and sent them to court.

Directors of public institutions to be named and dismissed by founders

The directors and vice directors of public institutions will be appointed and fired by the founders. The draft decision to modify the procedure was approved in the April 29 meeting of the Cabinet. According to the author of the draft decision, which is the State Chancellery, the procedure is modified with the aim of ensuring the continuity of the activity of public institutions or central administrative authorities and of standardizing the procedure. As a result, the constitution documents of the Electronic Governance Agency, the Public Services Agency, the Information Technology and Cyber-Security Service, the Social Investment Fund, the State Information Agency “Moldpres”, the Investment Agency and other institutions will also be modified.

Moldova to negotiate grant of US$1.66m with FAO

Moldova and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization will initiate negotiations and will sign an agreement to implement a common project in agriculture. The project is designed to contribute to stopping soil erosion in Orhei and Rezina and to support the implementation of innovatory eco-friendly farming and sustainable management practices. A grant of US$1.66 million is to be provided under the project. The Cabinet on April 29 approved the decision on the initiation of the negotiation and signing of the agreement. Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ion Perju said the project implementation period is 30 months.

Three automotive industry companies produce protective equipment

Three companies operating in the automotive industry remodeled their covers making activity and started to produce medical face shields, protective equipment, clothing, masks and shoe covers. The Italian capital company “Confezioni Andrea MDV SRL” based in the municipality of Soroca employs over 800 people and owns complex production equipment. In the quarantine period, the company managed to daily produce over 5,700 sets of protective clothing for national medical institutions, securing thus more than 320 jobs. The Slovak-German capital company “APM Automotive Protection SRL” based in Briceni town has over 280 employees. In the quarantine period, it has weekly produced by over 3,000 sets of protective clothing and secured 40 jobs. The Polish capital company “ConTeyor SRL” based in Căușeni district now makes medical face shields and protective masks. Earlier it produced covers for containers used to transport car spare parts.

● THURSDAY, April 30

PAS suggests Government should allow raising loans from budget

The companies should be offered the possibility of taking out loans from the state budget so as to maintain the businesses, while the people should be allowed to defer the payment of interest rates on loans to micro-finance companies for a month to six months. The initiatives were proposed by the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS). In a news conference, ex-minister of finance Natalia Gavriliţa said that a number of citizens and business entities that in better times raised loans from micro-finance companies do not manage to pay interest during the pandemic and get penalties. Members of the PAS asked the Government to treat the keeping of jobs and the access to finances for business entities as priorities during the crisis, when the revenues of the people and companies decrease. MP Dan Perciun said that according to forecasts, after the state of emergency is lifted, over 40,000 jobs will be lost. For the people not to reach a state of poverty, the Government should give them a break of at least of six months to find another source of income and enable them to pay interest without penalty.

Retail trade to restart May 4

Retail trade in all types of goods and services will be resumed on May 4. The retail outlets located in shopping centers and markets, including car markets, international airports and ports and at international state border crossing points will be an exception, the Commission for Exceptional Situations decided on April 29. As from May 4, takeout and catering activities will also restart. Also, the patents valid during the state of emergency can be suspended in the period, at the request of patent holders, for a period of up to 30 days of the lifting of the state of emergency, based on an application submitted to the State tax Service.

Igor Boțan: We must learn from crisis and debates on measures

Expert Igor Boțan said the pandemic and the crisis related to it created a new situation and the states learn how to act on the fly. It is also the case of the Republic of Moldova, which is a state with a small potential. The controversies and debates concerning the necessary measures between the representatives of the power and the opposition should not go beyond the limits of decency for obtaining improved decisions. After this crisis, a common assessment will be needed to draw some conclusions for the future. The expert developed the issue in the public debate “Supporting business community: between economy and politics”. Igor Boțan said that even if the government and the opposition realize that measures to support the business community in a crisis situation are needed, the controversies and debates have their own place. “The controversies are between good and better – the government says that it wants to do good, while the opposition, as usual, says that it can do better. Controversies appear normally. But such debates involve a lot of speculations, all kinds of arguments that cannot be substantiated, but they are inevitable,” stated Igor Boțan. According to him, it is very useful for such debates to continue and when the crisis passes, it will be evident who was right – the government or the opposition – so as to learn some lessons for the future.

Igor Boțan: An agreement should not contain provisions that suit more powerful partner

Expert Igor Boțan said a state should have good relations with all the foreign partners, but when it signs an agreement, the content of this should be analyzed thoroughly so as to see if there are formulations with a double meaning or that can be later interpreted in a way that suits the more powerful partner. The opinion was stated in the public debate “Supporting business community: between economy and politics”. Igor Boțan noted that a relevant example is the agreement with Russia, on the provision of a €200 million loan. This issue generated debates and controversy between the ruling and opposition politicians. The opposition MPs referred first of all to the Government decision of March 13, which contains three decisions in one. “They should reflect three separate events, not all the events together. Moreover, it is not clear if all the required procedures were performed. The opposition also referred to the dangers deriving from this agreement and this is important as there is a risk that the state will be later forced to pay sums much larger than €200 million,” he stated.

Ludmila Guzun: Economy Ministry works on new support measures intended for businesses

The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure is working on a new set of measures designed to support the business community. The companies that cannot take out loans to overcome the deadlock caused by the pandemic because they stopped work are now the Ministry’s priority, Democratic MP Ludmila Guzun said in a public debate entitled “Supporting business community: between economy and politics”. “A new package of measures for supporting the business community is being drafted and priority here is placed, as far as I know, on supporting the business entities that will be unable to raise loans, as it was mentioned, and I want to say that the proposals formulated by the opposition are constructive. Besides, a very important task that is to be carried out is the ensuing of access to funds for keeping jobs. We realize that the businesses that do not work and will be unable to pay salaries to employees will have to resort to a radical measure that we would like to be avoided,” stated the representative of the government coalition. According to her, the measures on which work is now done will be presented to the public through the Commission for Exceptional Satiations or again in Parliament.

Radu Marian: They waste money on companies that do not need it

The parliamentary opposition proposes creating a loan guarantee fund of 2 billion lei for businesses in difficulty, namely for companies that experience massive reductions in sales owing to the halt in activity. The legislative proposal formulated by the Action and Solidarity Party wasn’t registered in Parliament in the hope that the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance will undertake it through the Government’s platform so that it could be implemented faster, MP Radu Marian stated in a public debate entitled “Supporting business community: between economy and politics”. “We suggest creating a loan guarantee fund to the value of 2 billion lei, for example. We set down several conditions, namely that it should benefit the business entities with massive declines in sales, which were banned from working during the state of emergency. This bill that we announced today is designed for companies that are really in need. We discussed with banks and with the Ministry of Economy that is managed by a representative of the PDM. We hope that this measure will be undertaken. We didn’t register this bill in the hope that the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance will undertake the provisions we drafted and will register them as a legislative proposal of the Government so as to save time. This is our approach. We want to come up with ideas and the Government should take good decisions. This alternative as regards the creation of a guarantee fund will be much more suitable for helping business entities instead of simply subsidizing interest rates. We didn’t see something like this in other countries,” noted the MP. He said that this proposal will help avoid bankruptcies, layoffs and an explosion in unemployment.

Ludmila Guzun: Businesses should be supported without neglecting healthcare

The authorities should make effort to support the business community and also the health system of Moldova, MP of the Democratic Party of Moldova Ludmila Guzun said in a public debate entitled “Supporting business community: between economy and politics”. According to the representative of the government coalition, the problems in the economic sector become more evident and all the actions should be aimed at supporting the business community, but without neglecting the health sector that is responsible for public health. Also, the needs satisfied with public budget funds should be examined in relation to the possibilities of the public budget. “I will speak about the measures that were already adopted by Parliament. One of them is the subsidization of interest rates on loans. The arguments provided by the representatives of the Government, the ministry that presented this bill generated many questions, debates, proposals. I speak about the platform through which I took part in discussions – our group’s platform. I said that this is a possibility of providing support at least to a particular number of business entities. I know those arguments that not all the businesses can raise a loan because of the current situation and there is also probably the willingness or unwillingness of some of the business entities to borrow money from banks...”, stated Ludmila Guzun.

Labor legislation is not adjusted for states of emergency

The legislation that regulates the relations between employers and employees is outdated and is not adjusted for states of emergency, said employers who took part in a webinar organized by the Investment Agency in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Svetlana Bodaci, human resources director at a mobile phone carrier, said the current situation showed that the labor legislation is outdated and should be adjusted to the current conditions. Their company had to close its offices to visitors, but fully kept the salaries of employees who work according to a special program so as to prevent the risk of infection. Online sales were stepped up. Daniela Vicol, of a transport company, noted that the carrier’s over 100 employees worked from home. The workload was reduced by 30%. The company encouraged its employees to take the remaining part of the paid annul leave. They communicate online in a group or by phone. The employees and the employers swiftly adapted themselves to the new working conditions. The employers said they didn’t test all the employees who worked in the office for COVID-19. They chose to daily supervise the employees who filled out a questionnaire about their state of health. Other employers asked the employees to complete an own responsibility statement showing that they took the temperature and didn’t contact with sick persons.

● SATURDAY, May 2

Kiril Moțpan: State encourages criminal activity

MP of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Kiril Moțpan considers the state Republic of Moldova encourages criminal activities involving persons from the Transnistrian region. He says he reached such a conclusion following the Public Service Agency’s recent decision to issue licenses for the import of tobacco products to Transnistrian firms. So, the illegal schemes to smuggle contraband cigarettes to the EU were reactivated successfully: the interests of politicians and criminal bodies coincide,” Kiril Moțpan posted on the Internet. “There are a number of Government decisions – No. 960/2017; No. 1001/2001; No. 815/2005 – that do nothing but facilitate and legalize smuggling through the Transnistrian segment. These decisions set down a simplified procedure for registering business entities of the Eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova with the Public Services Agency. When these businesses are registered, they can import anything (absolutely anything), without paying customs duties (everything is free) and without facing any restrictions (can bring used parts, expired goods, banned medicines, etc., which generally cannot be brought through other checkpoints),” said the MP.

Valeriu Munteanu: With lies agriculture cannot be developed and problems cannot be solved

“The Republic of Moldova can now have about 200,000 – 300,000 tonnes of wheat that will satisfy the necessities of the Republic of Moldova,” stated former minister of the environment Valeriu Munteanu, referring to the consequences of the drought expected this year. “We are in an electoral year and, respectively, Igor Dodon keeps a number of beads in his hands and drops them one by one, also because he wants to look nice in people’s eyes, to look nice in businesses’ eyes, to keep the pandemic under control, to be on friendly terms with TransOil and other companies. He drops them all one after another. I would first of all recommend the President to be sincere and to come before the people and say: “we have a particular amount of money in the budget; the crises affected us to a particular extent”. We clearly see that there is no sincerity, no transparency and where three is no transparency, by a lie is unfolded each day. With lies agriculture cannot be developed and problems cannot be solved,” Valeriu Munteanu stated in the talk show “Ghețu Asks” on TV8 channel. According to him, the authorities should also say how much wheat, barley, seeds we have, but they do not talk about this. Vasile Myrzenko, head of the Farmers’ Federation, said that many of the farmers could face serious financial problems as a result of this spring’s drought and those farms could simply go bankrupt if they do not cope during the state of emergency.

Penalties for carriers that illegally operated routes

The road carriers that operated Paris-Chisinau repatriation routes that weren’t authorized by the Commission for Exceptional Situations, were penalized. Inspectors of the National Motor Transport Agency carried out searches and established that the carriers “Ednateric-Trans” and “Transeric Tur” SRL in the morning of April 29 embarked persons from near the state border crossing point Leușeni-Albița. Two drivers working for the two companies were penalized for illegal transportation of persons in national traffic and fined 12,500 lei and 15,000 lei respectively. The drivers were also banned from using motor vehicles for a period of six months and were deprived of the license plates and registration certificates.