Several hundreds of persons, patent holders from different zones of Moldova staged a protest in Chisinau on Thursday, December 2, against the authority’s decision to exclude the patent-based activities, Info-Prim Neo reports. The protest was organized by the Small Business Association (SBA) and supported by another 14 organisations, and trade unions in the field. SBA chairman Eugen Roscovanu told Info-Prim Neo that as a result of adopting the amendment to the Patent Law, about 39,000 people, most of them women, who earn their living due to the patent-based activity, will lose their workplaces. “Both the Parliament and the Government ignore the problems related to the small business, creation of workplaces, without taking concrete actions to determine people to remain at home and not to leave abroad to earn their living”, the quoted source said. As Roscovanu states, tens of persons disregarded by the authorities, taxi drivers, flower-sellers, transporters, small traders have attended the protest meeting. Following the passing of the amendments, there were collected tens of thousands of signatures by which the patentees request to cancel the respective restrictions, but the authorities ignored them. SBA chairman says that if they are not heard this time too, the protesters reserve themselves the right to picket the state and international institutions to draw attention to the problems they confront with. “The officials think that the patentees have millions lei, without understanding how difficult these people earn their money”, added the quoted source. Roscovanu mentioned that the Thursday’s protest meeting is the start of a number of protests against the authorities. Chairman of “Moldova-business-sind” trade union in Centru district, Dionisie Vasilache, told the agency that the trade unions in the field support the patentees. “In a country in which a quarter of the population went abroad, there is need to unite our efforts to create workplaces, protect the citizens in the country that try to work for securing a decent living”, Vasilache stated. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) announced the patentees about the possibility to further practice entrepreneur activities on the basis of other legal forms, without paying for registration of the enterprises. One of these forms is the private enterprise. The registration is provided free of charge. The Economy Minister announces in a press release that the state funds will cover all the operational and all-inclusive costs related to the opening of a private business, as registration of documents, stamp, publication in the official bulletin of the Chamber of Registration, licence, etc. At the same time, the patentees that will be registered as private enterprisers will be exempted of income tax and will have access to simplified procedures of the accounting records, MEC asserts.