Light industry businesses in Moldova are ready to contribute financially to building apartment houses for their employees, in order to encourage them to remain working in the country. President of Light Industry Producers Association and Director of “Zorile” Tudor Iacovlenco, has solicited on Thursday, August 9, at a meeting of 50 owners of light industry firms, a National Program for providing housing for Moldovan workers. He mentioned that to the construction of the houses can contribute the state, as well as the firm owners and the workers themselves. Iacovlenco mentioned that the shortage of workers, especially of qualified ones is a major problem for industrial companies. The situation is worsened by the employees’ mobility. New employees don’t stay more than 2-4 months, after which they quit their job, leaving to work abroad, explains the cited source. Moreover, the graduates of the professional schools are not ready to work with the sophisticated equipment from the factories, since their schools don’t have relevant skills in training the students according to the market demands. Tudor Iacovlenco requested the Government to involve the administration of the companies in the professional education process. He mentioned that the owners are ready to support financially the schools, as well as to provide them with necessary training equipment, but only on the condition of being able to oblige the trained students to work in local factories for at least 3 years. Light industry representatives also requested the Government to TAV-exempt equipment imports, since it creates a fiscal burden for the factories. In order to keep the market pace, the factories need to implement new technology and equipment which modify every six months. Participants at the meeting also requested extending the period of temporary imports to the whole period of the contract; currently it constitutes 3 years. The Government and the Fiscal Inspectorate were asked to engage more actively in fighting the black market, which creates an unfair competition to the authorized producers by attracting workers with wages raised by non-paying the taxes. PM Vasile Tarlev promised to assign a working committee of light industry experts and producers. The committee will examine all proposals and will amend the current legislation in order to support the light industry, described by the PM as one of the most strategic sector of the national economy. Tarlev mentioned that he is also dissatisfied with the way the wages are being calculated in the real economy and opted for establishing a new and efficient mechanism for calculation. The PM also stated that the Government has no interest in supporting unemployment and spending money in vane for the professional education process. The PM opted for collaboration with the local producers in order to optimize professional studies. According to the Government’s statistics, the light industry plays an important role in Moldovan economy, ranking the second in 2006 by amount of exports with a share of 26.8%.