● MONDAY, August 24

Moldova to be included in guidebook of region's top wines 

Moldova will participate with several wines in an evaluation of Romania's and Moldova's best wines, which will be chosen by international connoisseurs and included in the Wine Book of Romania and Moldova. The event will take place on August 26-27 in Cund village, Maramures district, Romania. The jury will taste and assess about 250 wines, 46 of which are produced by 16 companies from Moldova. “The Wine Book of Romania and Moldova will allow us to integrate our products in a large cultural context that is relevant for consumers. It is natural for us to be part of this project because the same grape varieties are cultivated in Moldova and Romania, some of them local, unique in the whole world”, said Dumitru Munteanu, head of the National Office for Vine and Wine.

Chisinau International Airport has bigger passenger flow and income 

Petru Jardan, general manager of Avia Invest, says that since his company took over the management of the Chisinau International Airport (AIC) 2 years ago, the passenger flow and the income have increased considerably and the company has paid taxes of over 70 million lei, nearly twice as much as before. In the first 7 months of 2015, the passenger flow has reached 1.2 million people, 35% more than in the same period of the previous year. Jardan says that this growth has been remarked by Airports Council International Europe, according to which AIC is a leader among airports with capacities under 5 million passengers. AIC's growth of 34% has been clearly above the 5% European average in this category. Moreover, AIC was declared the “Airport with the most dynamic development” in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

● TUESDAY, August 25

Strelets discusses overdue subsidies with farmers

Prime Minister Valeriu Strelets has discussed with representatives of farmers' associations about overdue agricultural subsidies and compensations for orchard growers during a meeting at the Government. Strelets said the Government is open to “cooperation and permanent communication, but without empty promises and without pressure”. According to the Ministry of Finance, as of August 22, the farmers have received some 160 million lei of the 207.6 million lei due in subsidies for 2014.

All reporting e-services will require a single signature

A single e-signature will be required by all public services, including the fiscal ones. Until now, electronic tax reporting was possible either via the authentication signature issued by Fiscservinform, exclusively for the use with tax services, or via the advanced qualified signature, which could be used with other public e-services, IPN reports. The Prime Minister's Economic Council announced that tax reporting will now be done only with the advanced qualified e-signature, which can be issued by Moldcell, Orange, the Center for special telecommunications and CRIS Registru.

● WEDNESDAY, August 26

Four companies drop petrodiesel prices 

Four companies importing petroleum products have notified the National Energy Regulatory Agency ANRE they are dropping petrodiesel prices at the pump – by 0.19 lei a liter on average from the last price fall earlier this month. The average petrodiesel price sold by the four companies dropped from 15.98 lei to 15.79 lei a liter. The lower retail prices are due to decreasing purchase prices. This is the ninth change in petrodiesel retail prices to be recorded this year. At the beginning of 2015, perodiesel was selling for over 16 lei a liter.

R16 road to be rehabilitated 

The road R16 Balti-Falesti-Sculeni will be rehabilitated according to European standards within 2 years, after the State Road Administration today signed an agreement with the Italian contractor Impresa Pizzarotti & C S.p.A. Road Administration director Gheorghe Curmei told a news conference that the €50.5 million project involves replacement of the asphalt, the broadening of the road by 1 meter, and the installation of street lights and construction of sidewalks where the 60km-long road crosses inhabited areas. The funds for the project come from a European Investment Bank loan taken two years ago. Transport and Roads Minister Iurie Chirinciuc hopes working together with the Italian contractor will be a positive experience. “We know that Italy boasts some of the best highways in Europe. We hope that the experience accumulated by this company will be implemented in Moldova and that this is not the last contract of this company here”.

Moldova, Romania to negotiate new double taxation agreement 

Moldova will negotiate with Romania a new convention to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion. Chisinau today has appointed its group of negotiators, to be headed by Anastasia Certan, department head at the Ministry of Finance. The new convention will replace the existing agreement, signed in 1997. Some of its provisions are obsolete and not in correspondence with the economic realities, argued the MoF drafters. The new act will be signed for an indefinite period and will be subject to revocation either partly or entirely on either party's initiative.

Central bank raises main interest rate to all-time record 

The National Bank's board today raised the main interest rate on short-term monetary policy operations by 2 percentage points, from 17.5 to 19.5 percent per annum. This is the highest level the central bank's main interest rate has reached since Moldova proclaimed its independence in 1991. Additionally, the interest rates on overnight loans and overnight deposits were raised, also by 2 percentage points, to 22.5% and 16.5% respectively. The updated rates become effective on September 2.

● FRIDAY, August 28

Japan to support new projects in Moldova’s agriculture 

The technical director of the 2KR Project who is responsible for relations with Japan Vasile Bumacov, ex-minister of agriculture, said more Japanese agricultural machinery is to be brought to Moldova. Another goal is to attract more tourists from this country. On August 27, Vasile Bumacov returned from a trip made to Japan. “We make effort to promote our wines there. We already signed an agreement with a company, which sells our wines through the supermarket chain. In Tokyo, we presented the companies with which we cooperate. We told the press about our wines. We also discussed the next projects and visited the Foreign Ministry where we had a meeting with their deputy minister as the Japanese financing goes through this ministry,” Vasile Bumacov stated.

● SATURDAY,  August 29

 Remittances from abroad 30% down on last year 

The National Bank of Moldova said a sum of over US$662 million was transfered from abroad through licensed banks to private individuals in January-July 2015, a decrease of 30% compared with the same period last year. According to the central bank, the decline is mainly due to the impact of the exchange rates of the original currencies against the U.S. dollar.