The new law on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), which was drafted by the Ministry of Economy and passed by Parliament in the first reading, contains only one measure aimed at supporting entrepreneurs. This is the institution of consultative inspections for the first three years of work. Eugen Giletski, expert of the Institute for European Politics and Reforms (IRPE), in a public debate said it is not enough to make a jump in the development of his sector to which a key role is given in the EU in increasing the prosperity of the country and the people, IPN reports.

The expert said the number of newly created SMEs remains constant year on year, while that of employed persons decreases. Many enterprises prefer to employ persons unofficially given that they do not enjoy real support on the part of the state institutions. The small entrepreneurs complain about the bureaucratized procedures for obtaining authorizing documents for doing business and about the fact that they have to offer bribe.

The IPRE formulated a series of proposals for improving the draft law. A suggestion is to allow the SMEs to pay only 50% of the income tax during the first three years of work. It is also recommended increasing the loan guarantee fund for SMEs so as to increase the entrepreneurs’ access to financing and simplifying the fiscal reporting procedures.

Attending the debate, ex-Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said there are few SMEs that work based on innovations in Moldova.

EU high adviser on trade and economy Renata Vitez said that most of the SMEs in Moldova work in the field of trade (over 46%). The young people with entrepreneurial skills should be oriented to start businesses in the production sector too.

The representative of the Ministry of Economy Svetlana Turcanu said that they also work on other documents stipulated in the new strategy for supporting the SMEs adopted last year. “We will make effort to promote the most important proposals for these to be examined by Parliament when the draft law on SMEs is debated in the second reading,” she stated.

Of the over 50,000 enterprises that work in Moldova, 97% are SMEs. These account for over 33% of the volume of sales in the economy.