The financial crisis now affecting the most developed countries is but the beginning of hard times for the world economy. This is the opinion of former Prime-Minister Ion Sturza, now the deputy manager of Rompetrol Group. He says Moldova will also be affected by its effects, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Shortly, we'll have to cope with a very dangerous phenomenon: the world recession,” Ion Sturza said Monday at a public lecture about the need to transform the private business into social responsibility. The effects will be harsh, Sturza believes, and they are not going to spare Moldova. When asked for his view on the position of the Moldovan authorities, which earlier said Moldova would stay resilient to the crisis, he has said: “It would be an exaggeration to state Moldova is so isolated globally, as not to be stricken in some way or another.” The former premier has said “Moldova is strongly exposed to the foreign factor,” and “the way in which we'll manage the crisis depends on our intelligence and skill.” He referred to the 1998 financial crisis, mentioning he “personally was a victim, impelled to manage it.” Ion Sturza was then a deputy premier in the Ion Ciubuc Cabinet. “History showed that Moldova was the only country from the CIS which a positive trend several months after the crisis, given the anti-crisis measures developed then by the Government and the National Bank. I would tell some to read the history, not to plunge our heads into sand and say everything is going to be OK.” “The economy is not going to grow it will decrease. A series of bankruptcies will start. The unemployment will soar striking tens of millions of employees in developed countries. If in the '30s the phenomenon occurred in the U.S.A. only, now with a much more open economy, more parts of the world will be affected,” the expert says. According to Ion Sturza, the Baltics, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and many other countries are on the brink of collapse.