President Igor Dodon said at least 50% of the products sold in shop chains should be of national makes. It is not normal when the shelves in shops are full of imported products, while the products made in Moldova cannot be sold or are sold at very low prices. The Presidential Office drafted a bill to this effect and will present it soon. The issue was discussed in the economic forum “Dialog Pro-Business” in Chisinau on December 17, IPN reports.

President Dodon suggested that the law on domestic trade should oblige the store chains to have at least 50% of national products on shelves. “This will enable the national producers to develop. We will promote the bill worked out by the presidential institution,” he stated in the talk show “Moldova live” on Moldova 1 TV channel.

According to Igor Dodon, the Republic of Moldova exports grain as raw material that is used to make different food products that are then exported to Moldova. “The question is, why don’t we produce finished goods, not raw material and export?” he asked.

In another development, referring to the bank fraud, President Dodon said that when the National Bank of Moldova provided state guarantees for saving the three commercial banks and the Ministry of Finance took these guarantees over, the interest rate on the sum of 13 billion lei was 5%. This way, during 25 years the state should repay not 13 billion lei, but 25 billion lei. Some 2.5 billion lei of the stolen funds were recovered by selling assets of persons involved in the theft.