● MONDAY, May 27

Flyone expands its fleet

Flyone airline operating in Moldova bought one more Airbus A320 aircraft. This is the fourth plane owned by the company and is of the same age as the other two possessed A320 aircraft, all made in 2008. The new plane has a capacity of 180 seats and can reach a travel speed of 840 km/h and a maximum height of 11,900 meters. The plane landed at the Chisinau International Airport on May 26 and was traditionally ‘baptized’ with jets of water. The aircraft was named Comrat in a move to promote the Moldovan towns abroad. Now the company will be able to provide new routes, especially after it purchases one more plane of the same type next month, said the airline’s director general Mircea Maleca.

● TUESDAY, May 28

Notices for paying real estate tax stated to be distributed

The notices for paying the property or real estate tax for this year started to be issued in the municipality of Chisinau. Those who pay the tax by June 28 benefit from a 15% reduction. The tax can be paid through post offices, banks, the governmental electronic payment service www.mpay.gov.md or through the digital/mobile signature on www.servicii.fisc.md, quoting the Chisinau City Hall. Owing to the large number of applicants, the staff of the Tax Collection Division that has eight employees of the necessary 24 does not manage to answer all the phone calls. The email messages will be examined as soon as possible. In the period, the working program of the Division will be extended by an hour, from 5pm to 6pm, so as to serve more customers.

Accession to European Energy Community is a solution for energy sector, expert

The vulnerability of Moldova’s energy sector is due to the dependence on the imports of natural gas and electric power, the old infrastructure and tariffs determined by the economic conditions, stated the expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Ion Tăbârță, noting Moldova’s accession to the European Energy Community is a solution to the problems faced in the energy sector. In the “Informative Bulletin: Energy security of the Republic of Moldova between past and future”, Ion Tăbârță says the commitments that would be undertaken as a member of the European Energy Community would lead to the diversification of the electricity supply sources, de-monopolization and liberalization of the energy market, separation of activities in the energy sector, renovation and modernization of infrastructure, setting of non-discriminatory tariffs for consumers. According to the expert, after the Association Agreement with the EU was signed, Moldova achieved good results in transposing the European directives to the national legislation, adopting a number of laws in the energy sector. However, delays are witnessed in adopting sector laws in the energy sector, such as the law on oil. Moldova’s energy sector will be reformed and modernized when the functionality of these laws is ensured, with the Government and the National Agency for Energy Regulation being the main responsible institutions.

● WEDNESDAY, May 29

Premier Filip seeks urgent measures to finish repair of Chisinau-Ungheni road

Prime Minister Pavel Filip gave the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure and the State Road Administration two days to discuss with the firm that repairs the Chisinau-Ungheni road and take a decision as to the completion of the renovation works. According to the Government’s press service, the road was to be put into operation in July 2016, but the works were delayed owing to the contractor. “The people do not care about the reasons for which the works are delayed. They do not care that this firm since 2016 has paid penalties of €360,000 of the over €5 million calculated penalties. The people want to travel on a high-quality road. And we have a responsibility toward the people,” stated Pavel Filip.

Moldova has a good reputation on Poland’s market, ambassador

As an important partner on the market of the European Union, Poland has a continuously rising potential for Moldovan exports. Moldova’s bilateral trade with Poland in 2018 exceeded 300 million euros, a 12% rise on the previous year. This information was presented at the second session of the Export Morning Program, organized by the Moldovan Investment Agency. Attending the event, Poland’s Ambassador Bartlomiej Zdaniuk said the two countries have profound commercial ties, which is due to Moldova having a good reputation in Poland. Moldovan Investment Agency director Rodica Verbeniuc said the Export Morning Program aims to improve the capacities of Moldovan exporters to achieve high standards.

Access road to Miclești and Peresecina-Hârtopul Mare-Ohrincea road to be rehabilitated

The access road to Miclești village and the Peresecina-Hârtopul Mare-Ohrincea road will be repaired. The State Road Administration on May 29 signed the contract for the repair of Corridor 11 with a Moldovan company. The contract is part of the Local Roads Improvement Project for which the World Bank provided over 99,8 million lei to the Government. According to Minster of Economy and Infrastructure Kiril Gaburici, the repair of Corridor 11 is of strategic importance as this road ensures connection between the central and northern districts of the country. “We set the goal to identify and repair all the local road corridors in the country so as to ensure the people’s access to education, health and commercial centers. With the assistance of experts, we identified 25 corridors and started to repair the most problematic road sections,” stated the minister.

Kozak is coming to Chisinau, announces Dodon after meeting with Putin

At the beginning of next week, Dmitri Kozak, the Russian deputy prime minister and the presidential special envoy for Moldova, will pay a visit to Chisinau. This was agreed during a meeting between President Igor Dodon and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the margins of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council Summit in Nur-Sultan. Also next week, Igor Dodon has been invited by Vladimir Putin to attend the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg. In a Facebook post, Igor Dodon said he delivered a speech at the summit wherein he underlined the fact that Moldovan society has always shown an increased interest in the integration projects of the post-Soviet space, first in the Customs Union, and now in the Eurasian Economic Union. Igor Dodon recalled that one year ago Moldova became an observer within the Union, which allowed the country to participate in many events and better understand the principles and tasks of this structure. However, the president says, Moldova’s participation as an observer would be much more efficient if the Government were also involved in this activity. Igor Dodon added that he hopes the internal struggles in Moldova will be over soon and the future Government will start to cooperate actively with the Eurasian Economic Union.

● THURSDAY, May 30

Modern tractors donated by Japan to Moldovan farmers

The farmers in Moldova will be offered about 40 tractors to the value of 25 million lei. A decision to this effect was approved in the May 29 meeting of the Cabinet. The decision specifies how the 25 million lei budget accumulated by selling another 106 tractors purchased with the grant provided by the Government of Japan to our country for implementing the project “Conservative Agriculture - Developing a Sustainable Soil Management System in the Republic of Moldova” will be spent.

State Register of Legal Entities to be reviewed

The Public Services Agency will initiate the procedure for removing 53 inactive State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) from the State Register of Legal Entities. These enterprises were registered in 1992 – 1995 and weren’t effectively managed by the public authors that founded them. The enterprises do not perform production activities, do not own assets and their owners in time presented no proposal for reanimating or liquidating them. A condition for striking the 53 enterprises off the register is for these not to have debts to different creditors. The eventual creditors have two months to claim debts if such exist.

New measures to support population in Transnistrian region

The Cabinet approved several normative documents aimed at positively solving a series of topical problems encountered by the inhabitants of the Transnistrian region. There were specified the procedures for certifying civil status events that happened on the left side of the Nistru and in Bender municipality. The decision supplements the list of instruments instituted by the Government for guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms of the residents of Moldova’s Transnistrian region. Among the events that will be certified, if these took place in conditions similar to those described by Moldova’s legislation, are the birth, death, determination of paternity, change of name/surname, marriage and divorce.

More Moldovans submitted income tax returns

Over 320,000 Molovans submitted income tax returns accounting for their 2018 earnings, announced the State Fiscal Service. This is by roughly 110,000 more than last year. Individuals, i.e. non-entrepreneurs, earned a combined 59 billion lei, paying 4 billion lei in income tax. Individual income rose by 11%, from 44,000 lei to 49,000 lei on average. The State Fiscal Service explains the increased number of returns on the introduction of a flat income tax of 12% on 1 October 2018. Of the total number of individual taxpayers who submitted returns, only 36,000 redirected 2% of their income tax amounts, or slightly more than 8 million lei, to an NGO or church. This, however, was by 47% more than last year.

● FRIDAY, May 31

“First House 4”: Size of compensation depends on beneficiary’s salary

Within the fourth stage of the “First House” program, the size of the compensation provided by the state will depend on the beneficiary’s salary. This way, the state will cover 10% of the salary presented to the Tax Serviced for beneficiaries from the municipality of Chisinau and up to 15% for beneficiaries from regions, Ina Darii, head of the State Programs Service of the Ministry of Finance, was quoted. “Within the “First House 4” program, we aim to offer support for the costs related to home loans to salary earners from the private sector. The general conditions are similar to those for the First House 2 program, but a new condition is that the compensation will represent up to 50% and will depend on the calculated salary indicated by employers in the reports presented to the Tax Service,” stated the functionary.

First bus route to Milan launched Chisinau

The first regular bus route from Chisinau to Italy’s Milan, via Padua, Vicenza and Verona, and return has been launched thanks to arrangements made by the Moldo-Italian Joint Commission on haulage and passenger transportation. The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure has informed that, for the time being, buses will depart from Chisinau on Thursdays at 7:45 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:40 a.m. The departures from Milan are on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Euro 5 emission standard buses will be operated on the route, and tickets will cost 70 euros.

Chisinau-Odessa train to run daily

The train from Chisinau to Odessa and return will start running daily beginning on Saturday, June 1, marking the start of the high season. Monday through Sunday, the train will depart from Chisinau at 7:05 a.m. and will leave from Odessa back to Chisinau at 6:45 p.m. Fares depend on class, ranging from 151 lei for third class, to 180 lei for second class, to 195 lei for first class.