● MONDAY, February 12
Young farmers and women farmers to benefit from agricultural subsidies in advance
Young farmers and women farmers will benefit from payments from the National Agriculture and Rural Development Fund in advance. A draft Government decision to this effect formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment was proposed for public debates. The young farmers and women farmers can benefit from financial support only once. The value of the financial support provided to an applicant will not exceed 650,000 lei. The subsidies in advance will be paid based on investment projects submitted by agricultural producers that carry out an economic activity in the agrifood sector for the first time and are not affiliated to another agricultural producer.
Grants intended for berry producers
Four grants to the total value of 110,000 lei are provided to agricultural producers in central and northern Moldova that want to grow berries and strawberries on new plantations or to apply innovations to existing plantations. The grants are offered within the project “Productivity Improvement and Market Access for Berry Producers” that is implemented by the Business Consulting Center. On its website, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment said that three grants of 20,000 lei each are provided for creating protection strips near berry and strawberry fields. A grant to the value of 50,000 lei will be offered for applying innovations.
● TUESDAY, February 13
Energy experts request national energy regulator to publish calculations for gas tariffs
Energy experts demand that the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) should publish the calculations for the natural gas tariffs, as the law provides, and announce public consultations only after this. In a news conference, energy expert Sergiu Ungureanu said the NAER should publish all the components of the tariff, while Moldovagaz should make public the information about gas purchases and the applied leu - US dollar exchange rate. When the tariffs deviate from the real costs by more than 3%, preconditions appeal for updating the tariffs. This hasn’t been done even if the deviations have been much larger.
● WEDNESDAY, February 14
New head of EBRD office in Chisinau introduced to authorities
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Angela Sax the new head of office for its operations in Moldova. A senior banker, Angela Sax was introduced to the local authorities today, February 14, by EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti during a visit to the capital Chisinau. She will take up her new post in April 2018. “I am grateful and excited to take on this new role for the EBRD,” Angela Sax said. “Moldova is a fascinating country and I see my role as fostering the talent and bringing the potential to blossom. Building on the achievements of my predecessor Dimitri Gvindadze, we will continue to support Moldova with investment and policy engagement to ensure the funding we can provide is used in the most effective and efficient way.”
Number of bank card holders on the rise
The number of bank cards in circulation in the Republic of Moldova last yearend exceeded 1.7 million. In the course of last year, there were issued over half a million new cards, 150,000 of which in the fourth quarter. At the same time, 343,000 cards were withdrawn from circulation in 2017. The number of operations performed in the country with cards issued in Moldova exceeded 40 million, 24 million of which were cash withdrawal operations.
Talks to extend repayment period of loan provided by EIB
The Cabinet approved the initiation of negotiations on the signing of Amendment No. 1 to the €75 million financing contract between the Republic of Moldova and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for supporting the road rehabilitation project. By this amendment, the period of repaying the amounts stipulated in the financing contract is extended until December 31, 2018. Thus, the EIB could transfer the not yet disbursed sums of the raised loan so that the works to rehabilitate national roads are completed.
Moldova is at a stage when many good things start to occur, EBRD President
The Republic of Moldova is at a stage when many good things start to occur, especially at economic level. Compared with 2015-2016, when the banking sector was in a crisis, significant progress has been made now and many things have improved, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti stated in a news conference in Chisinau. According to the EBRD President, even if the state of affairs changed to the better in the banking sector, a lot is yet to be done. He came to Chisinau to deliver the message that the reforms that need to be continued will enjoy the partners’ support. Owing to the done reforms and made progress, the EBRD allocated €130 million to Moldova within ten investment projects last year.
Legal framework on tourism modified
The Cabinet approved a number of amendments to the law on the organization and running of tourist activity in the Republic of Moldova, which are designed to facilitate the work of business entities operating in the field. The task of working out policies on tourism will be transferred from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research to the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, while the task of implementing these to the Investment Agency. The Public Services Agency will fulfill such duties as registration of tourist routes, monitoring of tourist heritage, classification of tourist accommodation facilities and keeping of the register of such facilities.
● THURSDAY, February 15
EBRD’s message is a positive signal for business sector, opinion
The statement made by the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti represents a positive signal for the business sector of the Republic of Moldova, Alexandru Bordea, co-founder of Angry Business. According to him, some of the entrepreneurs understand what the EBRD is, but there is also a mass of people who do not understand what this institution represents and what its message means. “I think that what should be done in continuation, including at the level of communication, is to bring a clearer and comprehensible message to the public as to what these statements mean as they every time separate the political statements from other kinds of statements,” stated Alexandru Bordea.
18 infrastructure and energy initiatives to be implemented with EU support until 2020
More than 200,000 inhabitants of Moldova will benefit from improved water supply and energy infrastructure following the implementation of 18 initiatives that will be supported by the European Union until 2020. The budget totals €43 million. In the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of the project on February 15, Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Liviu Volconovici said this is important support for the Government of the Republic of Moldova and for the local public authorities.
World Bank experts on visit to Termoelectrica
The joint stock company “Termoelectrica” considers it will manage to complete the World Bank project to improve the company’s operational efficiency and financial viability earlier, by the end of this year. The administration informed the WB experts who paid a visit to the company about these expectations. In a press release, the company’s administration said the experts were impressed by the results of the project that was to be finished in 2010 according to the previous commitments.
● FRIDAY, February 16
Central bank warns investments in crytocurrencies imply major risks
The National Bank of Moldova reiterates the warning issued earlier as to the so-called crytocurrencies, which are also called virtual coins or currency, about the high risks of losing the sums invested in these. In a press release, the Bank said given the technical characteristics of the virtual coins, the high volatility and lack of regulations that would protect the investments, maximum prudence is required when taking decisions to invest in such assets. The existing virtual coins, especially the Bitcoin, are not actual coins. These are virtual assets without real coverage and without the guarantee that they will be accepted as legal tender by the currency authorities. Consequently, these assets imply high volatility and a lows security level, in contrast to the currencies issued by the central banks and to digital currency whose use is regulated. The holders of crytocurrencies cannot be sure that they would recover the invested value in the future or would be able to exchange these for goods and services or for currencies issued by central banks,” it is said in the press release.
How Ukrainian firms do business with “Sheriff” Ltd of Transnistria
Amid the limitation by Kyiv of the business with the separatist regimes in eastern Ukraine and the annexed Crimea, the Ukrainian companies continue to make money from exporting to “Transnistria” – a separatist region in eastern Moldova, says a journalistic investigation entitled “Business partners of the Republic Sheriff”, published by RISE Moldova. As the authors of the article determined, among the largest suppliers of goods to the self-proclaimed “Moldovan Nistrean Republic” (MNR) are the representative offices in Ukraine of world brands and even the company “Roshen” owned by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, having the Transnistrian Ltd “Sheriff”, owned by local oligarch Victor Gusan, as the main business partner.
Exports of all categories of fruits increased substantially, NFSA director
The exports of all categories of fruit last year increased substantially to all the markets - the European Union, Russia and the whole Commonwealth of Independent States. The quantity of exported apples rose, with over 90% of these exports going to Russia. Exports to the EU were also larger than earlier. For example, the exports of table grapes amounted to 80,000, as opposed to the previous period, when this figure stood at under 60,000. The exports of processed fruit and walnuts and walnut kernel also grew, director general of the National Food Safety Agency (NFSA) Gheorghe Gaberi stated in an interview for Radio Free Europe. The director said about 4,000 tonnes of apples for processing and over 2,000 tonnes of apples for being consumed fresh were exported to the EU. Moldova’s exports of plums to the EU came to 20,000 tonnes. Grape exports also rose.
NFSA confirms JLC and Incomlac products contain vegetable fats
The national dairy producers JLC and Incomlac supply products with a high content of vegetable fats to shops. According to the National Food Safety Agency (NFSA), the samples taken for examination confirmed the presence of vegetable fats in milk products. The 5% fat fresh cow cheese produced by JLC contains 21.75% of vegetable fats, while the 2% cow cheese – 14.93% of vegetable fats. The butter “Crestianscoe” (“Peasant’s”) made by Incomlac contains 15.54% of vegetable fats, the chocolate covered cheese with condensed milk – 60.81%, the sweet cheese “Mic Vis” with apricot – 34.18%, while the chocolate covered cheese with vanilla flavor – over 77.51%.
Leu loses ground. Do trends change?
The Moldovan leu started to lose ground to the main foreign currencies. Contacted by IPN to comment on the variations of the past week, Alexandru Fala, expert of the independent think tank “Expert-Grup”, said the variations are small and momentary and there are now no factors that could significantly influence the relationship between the leu and the main foreign currencies. “Since 2016, the leu has constantly appreciated against the U.S. dollar. What has happened during the past week is not a change in trends. I think it is rather an episodic development and the previous tendency will soon return. I see no unordinary situations now. If the exchange rate against the dollar exceeded 17 lei, we could call this depreciation,” said the expert.
● SATURDAY, February 17
Authorities to borrow money from Chinese bank to repair two road sections
The road sections Criva – Balti (national road M5), with a length of 133 km, and Balti – Floresti – Gura Camencii (national road R13), with a length of 40 km, will be repaired. The authorities plan to raise a loan from the largest Chinese bank, the ICBC (Industrial and Construction Bank of China). The cost of works will be assessed as a result of negotiations. In a response to an inquiry made by IPN News Agency, the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure said that Minister Kirill Gaburici recently signed a memorandum of intent on road rehabilitation with a delegation of the Chinese company China Hyway Group Limited. The company will facilitate the raising of the loan from the ICBC and will perform the road rehabilitation works when the negotiations on technical (contract conditions and cost of works) and financial aspects (conditions of lending from the ICBC) are completed.
Four companies ready to supply power to Moldova
Four companies expressed their readiness to supply electric power to Moldova within a contest announced earlier by Gas Natural Fenosa. In a press release, the company said it already sent invitations to take part in the next stages of the bidding contest to these suppliers. The four companies are: SA “Energocom”, ZAO “Moldavskaya GRES”, PAO “DTEK Pavlogradugoli” and PAO “Donbassenergo”. If they accept to take part, the given companies must submit bids by March 13, 1pm. In a two-round bidding contest, the presented bids will be assessed and validated and the winner will be chosen.
