Prime Minister Ion Chicu said the Republic of Moldova turned from an agricultural country into an importer of agricultural products. Such a situation is serious and measures should be taken to develop this area, including by ensuring appropriate subsidization in the sector, IPN reports.

The official said that he asked his colleagues from the Government to analyze the top ten positions of agricultural products imported by Moldova and the conclusion is that the country imports elementary products to the value of 2 billion lei. “Such a state of affairs should be changed,” Premier Chicu stated in the program “Moldova live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1.

According to him, the state does not set the prices of food products or of other kinds of products, except for the prices that are regulated by the National Agency for Energy Regulation. “We now created in the Government a working group for monitoring the evolution of prices. When we see that the prices are raised groundlessly, we will intervene. The Competition Council is the state tool that can be used to see if any concerted action was taken. In the other cases, given that we have a market economy, the business entities set the prices depending on the supply, demand and costs. We must do so that the supply on our market is sufficient and no artificial shortages are created. The commission will deal namely with this,” stated the official.

As regards the rise in fares for interurban routes, Premier Chicu said the carriers had asked to raise the fares for many years and these provided arguments why the ticket prices should be increased. “They requested to raise the fare to 0.9 lei per km. We discussed with them and explained why the rise should be of 0.12 lei per km, from 0.48 lei to 0.60 lei, for the first category,” he stated, noting the carriers threatened to mount protests and to stop work.