● MONDAY, November 30

SMEs interested in grant facility of World Bank-funded CEP II project

The first ten small and medium-sized enterprises of Moldova filed applications to get grants from the matching grant facility sub-component the World Bank-funded Second Competitiveness Enhancement Project (CEP II). Executive director of the Project Implementation Unit Aurel Casian in an interview said that even it is only about two months since the co-financing component was launched, the SMEs already presented the first projects to obtain grants for implementing them. “The projects are very interesting and original. Our team is now assessing the presented projects. One of them was preliminarily endorsed. It was submitted by an electronics company based in Balti, which exports products to Germany and Romania. We hope that the first grants will be soon approved,” stated Casian.

● TUESDAY, December 1

Eco-Energetica Week begins with Fair of Eco-Responsible Ideas

The Eco-Energetica Week started on December 1 with the Fair of Eco-Responsible Ideas where the participants in the Moldova Eco-Energetica competition, who passed the selection stages, will auction their project ideas before potential sponsors, donors and creditors. In a press release, the Energy Efficiency Agency says that this year the project ideas vary from systems for heating greenhouses with compost from agricultural waste and the construction of biogas-fueled cogeneration plants  to information systems for managing street lighting. The most successful projects will get financing from the investors attending the event such as banks, investment funds and development partners. The companies that will convince the investors of the project’s feasibility will be able to obtain state-guaranteed loans in advantageous conditions. The winners of the Fair of Eco-Responsible Ideas will be announced in the Moldova Eco-Energetica Gala on December 4.

Chamber of Trade launches second alternative dispute resolution instrument

The Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) of Moldova aimed to become the partner of the institutions that do reforms to contribute to the improvement of justice in the country, the Chamber’s chairman Valeriu Lazar said in the event held to launch the Medication Center under the CTI on December 1. According to him, the Chamber’s members want justice in Moldova to be good in general, but mainly from the perspective of economic entities. These enter different economic relations and disputes between them can appear. The traditional method of settling an argument or a disagreement, by court, entails time and a lot of money. “The arbitration under the CTI is an alternative dispute resolution method. More than 100 disputes have been settled by arbitration this year. The appearance of disputes and divergences is typical of economies in transition that face problems, like Moldova’s economy. Today, with the support of the partners, we launch an alternative dispute resolution instrument– mediation,” stated Lazar, adding that the Mediation Center will also be a Center of Excellence that will provide solutions to disputes and will also work out different methodologies needed in mediation.

● WEDNESDAY, December 2

Romania’s administration asked to create investment fund for Moldova

A number of Moldovan and Romanian institutions, among which the Black Sea University Foundation, the Romanian Academic Society and a series of associations, foundations, platforms and media institutions, seek the creation of a specialized investment fund – Moldova Fund - as an instrument for expressing Romania’s support for fundamental and irreversible changes in Moldova. The Moldova Fund will also serve as an instrument for reducing the discrepancy between the two banks of the Prut River. The appeal was addressed to the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, the Senate’s Chairman Calin Popescu Tariceanu, President of the Chamber of Deputies Valeriu Zgonea and Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.

Number of subscribers to high-speed fixed Internet access services goes up

Most of the new subscribers to Internet access services in the first nine months of this year chose the high-speed fixed-line fiber optic Internet connections. The subscribers to this type of Internet access services represented over 50% of all the subscribers, the ICT regulator said. The number of new subscribers to fiber optic Internet access in January – September 2015 rose by 19,300 or 6.9% to 279,300 compared with the end of 2014, while of those connected through coaxial cable – by 2,200 or 5.8% to over 38,000. The number of subscribers connected to the Internet based on xDSL technologies fell by 7,200 or 3.6% to 204,500, while of those connected based on other technologies was 2,100.

Status of National Spatial Data Fund modified

The National Spatial Data Fund will no longer have the status of public institution because it is not a legal entity and has only one employee. The Fund will work as a subdivision of the Agency for Land Relations and Cadaster. Amendments and supplements were also made to the Agency for Land Relations and Cadaster’s regulations concerning cooperation with the local public authorities. One of these enables the Agency to file appeals against public servants and persons working at the Agency who caused damage to the public property and the state budget.

Anatol Arapu reports in Parliament

Acting minister of finance Anatol Arapu was questioned about the bank frauds in the December 2 special sitting of Parliament. This informed the MPs about the measures taken by the Ministry of Finance in the period after Banca de Economii, Unibank andi Banca Sociala were placed under special administration. Anatol Arapu said the Ministry of Finance issued a state guarantee for guaranteeing the emergency loans provided by the National Bank of Moldova to the three aforementioned banks to the total value of over 14.8 billion lei. On October 16, 2015, the balance of the emergency loans guaranteed by the state was 14.1 billion lei, while the balance of the calculated interest was 8.8 million lei.

● THURSDAY, December 3

Packing house in Costesti becomes functional

The packing house in Costesti became functional owing to the support provided by the United States Agency for International Development and Romania’s Development Cooperation Program (RoAid) and to the contributions made by local producers who founded the cooperative FructBioImpex. In the launch on December 3, those attending visited the packing house where cold storage facilities and grape sorting and packing lines were recently installed and put into operation. Romania’s Ambassador in Chisinau Marius Lazurca said that this project continues to enhance the competitiveness of the Moldovan farmers so that their access to the EU market is faster and sustainable. “Romania is ready to continue offering the Moldovan authorities assistance in doing the reforms needed to implement the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU,” he stated.

● FRIDAY, December 4

Country’s energy dependence discussed in Parliament 

The over 90% dependence on mainly imported energy resources is now the most serious challenge faced in the energy sector. The difficult geopolitical situation in the region affected Moldova too, including its energy sector, acting deputy minister of economy Valeriu Triboi said when presenting a report in Parliament on December 3. According to the deputy minister, the Republic of Moldova was put in the situation to purchase electric power from one source – the Cuchurgan Power Plant. Moldova also imports natural gas primarily from one source. The Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline satisfies less than 1% of the necessities, providing gas to about 10,000 consumers in the districts of Ungheni and Nisporeni. The construction of the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline remains an absolute priority for the Government of Moldova.

 Two laws of agricultural package not yet adopted 

Parliament on December 3 passed two more laws of the agriculture package. These refer to the new methodology of determining the prices of oil products and to the trade in perishable goods. Two more laws of this package are yet to be adopted, but this cannot be done until a new Government is not voted in. The first bill provides that the prices of oil products will be calculated based on the international stock indexes. The farmers will be able to import oil products for their needs without special licensing conditions. After the Parliament’s sitting, Speaker Andrian Candu said the two remaining bills refer to agricultural loans and to the exemption of farmers from income tax. These should be appraised by the Government first, but an interim Cabinet cannot do this.

Head of state promulgates amendments to state budget 

President Nicolae Timofti promulgated the law to amend and supplement the 2015 state budget law that was adopted by Parliament with the aim of adjusting the budget indicators to the incomes and spending, resulting from the macroeconomic developments, the suspension of the budget support provided by the foreign partners and the forecasts for the period that remained until this yearend. The state budget includes money for increasing teachers’ salaries from September 1, depending on the rise in percentage of the average official salary compared with the average salary in education in the fourth quarter of last year, and for raising the social assistance and cold-month allowances following the rise in the electric power and natural gas tariffs.

Central bank: Euro is expected to significantly appreciate against leu 

The evolution of the euro on the international currency markets will lead to a significant appreciation of the euro against the Moldovan leu the coming days, the National Bank of Moldova said. The central bank noted that in a recent meeting centering on the monetary policy, the European Central Bank decided that the interest rate on deposits will be decreased by 0.1 percentage points to minus 0.3%, while the base rate and the interest rate on loans will be maintained at 0.05% and 0.3% respectively. It also decided to extend the quantitative easing program to the value of €60 billion a month until March 2017, with the possibility of prolongation.

 Mail through post-terminal network 

The state-run company “Moldova’s Post Office” on December 4 launched a project to deliver mail through the agency of the post-terminal network. “The service is an innovative one in Moldova. Its essence consists in the delivery of packages and other types of mail purchased online not though the post office, but through post-terminals, enabling thus the clients to avoid queues and to save time. The mail can be collected 24 hours of 24, when it is convenient to the client,” said the company’s director general Sergei Nastas. He also said that the number of mail packages bought online increased considerably following the development of electronic trade. “Moldova’s Post Office” earlier purchased two terminals. One was installed at the post office No. 2060 in Botanica district, while the other one inside the Railway Terminal in Chisinau. There were bought another three terminals, from the local company “Aviatehnologie”, which will be set up in other posts offices in Chisinau and Balti.

 State Tax Service launches electronic service “e-Application” 

The State Tax Service has announced the launch of a new electronic service called the “e-Application”. This will replace the traditional procedure for submitting applications for being registered as VAT taxpayer and for registering subdivisions. In a communique, the Service says that at the first stage the system allows the taxpayers with digital signature and tax inspectors to register VAT taxpayers online and to manage subdivisions online. The taxpayers can submit online an application for being registered as VAT taxpayer or for annulling the registration as VAT taxpayer and can view the certificate issued by the tax authority. This operation can be performed directly from a computer connected to the Internet. As regards subdivision management, the implementation of this service is designed to simplify the procedures for presenting applications for registering/modifying/suspending or closing subdivisions also online.

● SATURDAY, December 5

 US$3 million to be invested in investment climate reform in Moldova 

A project to finance the reform of the investment climate in Moldova will be launched in 2016. The project will have a budget of US$3.2 million and is aimed at improving the investment sphere in Moldova. The project aims to improve the regulation of the entrepreneurial activity and to increase the access to the market, especially of agricultural entrepreneurs by enhancing competitiveness and facilitating export. Among the other objectives of the project are to increase the investment protection level and to ensure gender equality.

Renewable energy sector and energy efficiency attract more investments 

The most successful projects to use renewable energy and increase energy efficiency were awarded at the fifth Moldova Eco-Energetica Gala. The director of the Energy Efficiency Agency Mihai Stratan said these were selected out of 76 projects that were presented by public institutions, enterprises and private individuals. Among the awarded projects is the one presented by the nursery school “Tereza Sobolevschi” of Ungheni town, which was nominated in the eco-responsible stories category. The nursery has perseveringly implemented renewable energy projects. In 2013 it implemented a project to set up solar panels in concert with the Moldova Social Investment Fund. As a result, its costs for the consumed energy fell by 40%, while the 360 children and ten employees of the kindergarten benefit from energy and hot water throughout the year.

Economically active persons in Moldova rose in number 

The economically active population of Moldova (employed population plus those who are out of work) in the third quarter of 2015 grew by 2.2% compared with the corresponding period last year. Thus, there were 1.349,2 million economically active persons in Moldova, the National Bureau of Statistics has said. The structure of the active population remained unchanged. The employed population represented 96.7%, while the jobless persons – 3.3%. The working persons aged 15 and over constituted 45%, an increase of 44% on the third quarter of 2014. This indicator was higher among men than among women.