In 2017, some 2,300 individuals and enterprises received government subsidies to a total of 2 billion lei, or 1.3% of GDP, compared to six billion lei, or 4.2% of GDP, in 2016. This significant drop was due in part to the completion of some government interventions to support the financial sector and the reevaluation of aid with a shift to fiscal incentives, says Diana Enachi, economist with IDIS Viitorul.

The Competition Council has proposed reducing government subsidies to 1% of GDP by 2020, in line with best international practices. For example, in 2017 the EU-28 spent 116 million euros combined, or 0.76% of the EU’s GDP.

In Moldova, most subsidies in 2017 continued to go to regional development. The Agriculture Payments and Intervention Agency dispensed 27% of the total aid, the Ministry of Education 22%, the Fiscal Service 17%, the Customs Service 7% and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection 7%.

Diana Enachi says better monitoring of government aid is needed. “Sadly there is no mechanism to monitor and control the efficiency of public money dispensed in the form of state aid to see how the beneficiary's economic situation has changed. Another issue is reduced transparency in the sector. Although we have a State Aid Register and a State Aid Portal, their use is exclusively restricted for government aid providers. For comparison, in Romania and other European states, state aid registers are open data platforms and provide information such as the value and category of state aid, beneficiaries, the sector of activity, and the time of delivery to any user," explained Diana Enachi.