● MONDAY, September, 4
Why it is hard to exchange Moldovan lei in Romania
Even if Romania is a neighboring state and the most important business partner of the Republic of Moldova, it is hard to exchange Moldovan lei in this country. Experts say there is no administrative barrier in this regard, but there is no demand for this currency. Management consultant Valentin M. Ionescu from Bucharest said the demand for Moldovan lei is very low both among private individuals and legal entities. According to the National Bank of Romania, the Moldovan leu is quoted at about 0.21 bani. “The economy of the Republic of Moldova is small and the currency is not attractive. The transactions with a particular currency are influenced by the exchange of goods and services. The exchanges between our countries are low in volume and are not based on the Moldovan currency,” stated the Romanian expert. In 2016, trade between the two states came to €1.35 billion. “No firm in Romania uses the Moldovan leu given that the Republic of Moldova has a negative balance of trade. The currency is weak and is not used in transactions. The transactions are performed in euros or dollars. As the demand for the Moldovan leu is low, the currency exchange facilities are not interested in buying and storing this currency,” explained the expert. Valentin M. Ionescu also said that the amounts of Moldovan lei issued by the National Bank of Moldova that are in circulation in Romania are very small.
EU allocates almost €7m for seven Twinning projects
The European Union will offer Moldova €6.85 million for implementing seven more Twinning projects that form part of the Moldova – EU Plan of Action as of September. According to the Governments’ press service, another two Twinning projects are being designed. One of the seven projects is aimed at assisting the National Standardization Institute in joining the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization as a fully-fledged member. The other projects will promote the cultural heritage of Moldova by conserving and protecting it, will strengthen the capacities of the National Center for Personal Data Protection, the Parliament’s capacities in the process of adjusting the national legislation to the EU’s, the Customs Service’s capacities to implement the measures defined in the Association Agreement, Moldovan law enforcement agencies’ capacities to investigate acts of corruption. The two Twinning projects under formulation will assist the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure to harmonize the national legislative and operational framework to the EU directives and regulations on maritime transport and inland waterways and to reform the police initial and continuous training center. Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between public administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary or partner countries. Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities.
● TUESDAY, September, 5
6.5m lei to be allocated to Moldovan agricultural producers
Twenty Moldovan agricultural producers will get a total of 6.5 million lei in refund for the investments made to purchase No-Till sowers, irrigation and other types of equipment. These were selected as a result of the sixth call for grants of the Sustainable Land Management post-investment program. According to a press release of the Moldova Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MAC-P), eight agricultural producers from northern Moldova and by six from the southern and central districts will get back 50% of the investments made in implementing conservation agriculture and sustainable land management. A number of 165 agricultural producers of the 213 that submitted applications received financial assistance totaling 38 million lei or US$1.9 million through the six calls held within the post-investment grants program during the past three years. A grant was of 232,800 lei on average. The Sustainable Land Management post-investment grants program was launched in 2014 and is a component part of the MAC-P in Moldova, which is financed by the World Bank, the Government of Sweden, the Global Environment Facility and the Government of the Republic of Moldova.
Larger amounts collected into national public budget in eight months
The revenues collected by the State Tax Service into the national public budget in the first eight months of this year rose by 18.6% or 3.2 billion lei compared with the corresponding period last years. The amounts collected in the period came to 20.8 billion lei. The projections were exceeded by 6.8% or 19.5 billion lei. A sum of 9 billion lei was collected into the state budget, an increase of 1.7 billion lei or 24.5% compared with January-August 2016. The amounts accumulated in the local budgets added up to 2.2 billion lei, up 115.5 million lei or 5.3%. The state social insurance budget had revenues of 7.2 billion lei, an increase of 1.1 billion lei or 18.1%. The revenues of the mandatory health insurance funds totaled 2.2 billion lei, up 255.9 million lei or 12.8%.
20 tonnes of Moldovan apples returned from Russia
Over 20 tonnes of Moldovan apples were sent back following a check performed at the Russian customs post “Kupets” in Kursk region. The consignment was to reach a processing factory in Nijnii Novgorod region. According to a press release placed on the website of Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor), the Oriental fruit moth was detected in the consignment. Rosselkhoznadzor said the import of Moldovan apples was banned in accordance with the current legislation in a move to prevent the spread of pests on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Fuel price ceilings increased
The National Agency for Energy Regulation announced new fuel price ceilings for the next two weeks. During September 6 – September 19, a liter of gasoline coded 95 will cost at most 17.40 lei, up 0.45 lei, while of diesel fuel 14.75 lei, up 0.20 lei. The Agency calls on the people to report cases when filling stations post higher prices than the ceilings on the green line +373 800 10 800 or through the email address anre@anre.md.
● WEDNESDAY, September, 6
Moldova, Belarus liberalize transport in bilateral and transit regimes
The road transport, including the one in transit regime, between the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Belarus will be performed without authorizations. A decision on the initiation of negotiations on the issue was approved by the Cabinet. The liberalization of transport in bilateral and transit regimes will facilitate the exchange of goods between the two states, will reduce operational costs and will help increase the competitiveness of road transport operators at regional level. The protocol will take effect when the last notification of the completion of the required internal legal procedures by the sides is received by diplomatic channels.
Record high witnessed on Moldova’s realty market
The building industry this year has recovered after last year’s crisis. During the first two quarters of 2017, the number of apartments made available for occupancy rose to almost 7,000, which is an unprecedented growth. Most probably, the figure this year will reach 8,000 apartments, which will be the highest level since the declaration of Moldova’s independence, economist of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ionita stated in the program “15 Minutes of Economic Realism”. According to Ionita, in 2016 we witnessed a crisis on the reality market, determined by the negative perception of people. The number of those who purchased apartments with own money declined, but not as dramatically as in the case of those who bought homes with borrowed money. Thus, the people who intended to purchase and had money didn’t change their minds, but decided to wait, while those who intended to borrow money to buy a home preferred to delay taking such a decision owing to the uncertain situation. The decline in the demand for apartments and in the number of persons who were ready to borrow money led to the most significant decrease in the number of apartments made available for use. In the third quarter of 2015, the number of such apartments stood at 6,250, while in the corresponding period of 2016 at 4,500. In 2017, the situation started to improve following the modification of the perception of people and the greater demand for home loans. “Currently, we are witnessing a re-formation and recovery of the realty market and the bankruptcy of uncompetitive companies. During the next few years, we will see the completion of the projects started ten years ago. The prices will be kept at a rather low level because the developers will have to get rid of the non-liquidated assets. The demand on the part of consumers will increase following the postponement of home buying decisions in 2016,” concluded Ionita.
Additional surveillance for banks and non-banking financial societies
The banks and non-banking financial societies, insurance enterprises and investment societies that form part of financial conglomerates will be supervised additionally. This is provided in a bill that was approved by the Cabinet on September 6. According to the authors, the document is designed to adjust the national legislation to the EU’s, to enhance the protection of the rights of depositors, insured persons and investors. The bill specifies the criteria for identifying a financial conglomerate and aspects that should be taken into account, such as the size of capital, risk concentration and transactions inside the group, as well as the conditions for designating the authorities responsible for ensuring additional surveillance (coordinator), the powers of these, methods of cooperation and exchange of information between the competent authorities.
● FRIDAY, September, 8
Honey, walnuts and grains to be exported as enhanced ecological products
Recommendations and a plan of action for improving the national production capacities and quality will be worked out for Moldovan honey, walnuts and grains for these to be exported as value-added products to regional and international markets. These products were selected within the first national workshop of the project for the national assessment of the export of ecological products from the Republic of Moldova. Svetlana Turcanu, head of the Ministry’s SMEs Development Policies Division, said the Republic of Moldova needs “green” development to promote exports and identify new niches on regional and international markets that require ecological products. This way, the export potential and competitiveness of national products and local companies will increase. The project for the national assessment of the export of ecological products from the Republic of Moldova to the value of US$ 100,000, which is financed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is implemented between May 2017 and the middle of 2018. UNCTAD Economic Secretary Robert Hamwey underlined the importance of developing all the identified ecological sectors and reiterated that the goal of the project financed by the UNCTAD is to provide assistance in implementing green economy policies.
Changes to goods transit procedure
The Customs Code was supplemented with a new article that modifies the procedure for submitting goods transit declarations. Thus, from September 8, the T1 declarations will be presented in an electronic format only. Under the document that was published in the September 8 issue of the Official Gazette, the electronic procedure will be used at the customs posts Centru – Chisinau 3, Sculeni – Sculeni, Otaci–Moghiliov-Podolisk, and Sud – Cahul, while from October 1, 2017 at all the customs posts. The methodological T1 transit norms apply to transit goods that are transported by railroad or road, except for goods transported under the TIR procedure. They do not apply to transit goods transported by private individuals that are exempted from paying import/export duties, parcel post goods intended for private individuals and goods transported by mail. According to the Customs Service, over 150,000 transitions are annually performed based under the T1 procedure that implies additional costs for filling out, submission and approval. Also, a considerable volume of paper declarations are collected at customs posts.
Liberalization of road and air transport between Moldova and Ukraine discussed in Odessa
The Republic of Moldova and Ukraine included the signing of bilateral agreements on the liberalization of road and air transport between the two sides in this year’s bilateral agenda. Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who, together with the Premier of Ukraine Volodimir Groisman, took part in the second International Transport Conference “Integrated Transport Corridors Europe-Asia”, said that special attention should be devoted to the quality of the roads that connect Chisinau and Odessa and to the rehabilitation of the Basarabeasca-Berezino railroad section and these issues should be covered by the transport strategies of the two states. According to the Government‘s press service, Pavel Filip underlined the necessity of repairing the Platonovo-Liubashevka road and the opportunity of constituting a joint customs posts Palanka-Mayaki-Udobnoe and of intensifying cooperation with the aim of including the Edinet-Vinnita direction in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). The Premier said the state sector policy of the Republic of Moldova in transport and logistics is based on three poles: harmonization of the national legislation with the EU regulations; integration into the international transport corridors and liberalization of transport markets and diminution of transit costs.
● SATURDAY, September, 9
Economy recovers, but not sufficiently to ensure decent living, experts
The economy is trying to overcome the crisis that started in 2014-2015 and began to recover, but not sufficiently to ensure decent living. The issue was developed in the talk show “Key issue” on NTV Moldova channel. The President’s adviser on economic matters Elena Gorelova in the program said a particular improvement is seen in some of the macroeconomic indicators and the economic growth pace is restored, but this is not enough to ensure decent living conditions and to support the small and medium-sized businesses and farmers. “Surely, the people do not see these changes because they continue to leave the country en masse, especially the young generation, and this should generate answers to the question “What will be next?”, she stated. According to Elena Gorelova, even if they manage to attract foreign investors, the Republic of Moldova will remain with a smaller skilled labor force. “Regrettably, alongside the export of goods, we export more and more labor force,” said the adviser. Economy expert Veaceslav Ionita considers the economy is generally recovering. The depreciation of the leu in relation to foreign currencies struck exports. “I have never seen exports in the first half of the year to decline compared with the first half of the year. We have never had something like this. Exports usually grow,” said the expert, referring to the data for 2016. Veaceslav Ionita also said that currently the economy cannot absorb larger sums of lei and the National Bank of Moldova has to freeze 40% of the money that are in commercial banks and to pay interest for this.
Moldovan economy advances slowly, but lags behind, state of the nation report
The Moldovan economy advances slowly, but lags behind other economies and the population’s incomes remain very small in relation to those of the Western neighbors. The discrepancy between Moldova and the reference countries increased in respect of a series of indicators that are crucial for the country’s sustainable development, executive director of “Expert Grup” Adrian Lupusor said, commenting on the state of the nation report that is to be presented in an economic conference at the beginning of October. Adrian Lupusor said this year’s edition of the report represents an assessment of the discrepancies between the Republic of Moldova and the Central and Eastern European states. Even if Moldova outstrips the growth rates in some sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, its economy lags much behind. On October 6, in the economic conference “Macro 2017”, “Expert-Grup”, in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Moldova, will launch the state of the nation report on the economic, social and political situation in the Republic of Moldova. The event will bring together 14 speakers from six counties and will center on Moldova’s development perspectives until 2030. The conference will also discuss the social and economic opportunities and risks and how these shape the country’s development course, how Moldova would look like in Europe in 2030 amid local realities anchored in an uncertain and unstable European context, long-term development scenarios and possibilities of ensuring dynamic, sustainable and inclusive growth. Ana Mihailov, programs coordinator at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Moldova and partner of the event, said discussions will be launched to generate ideas with the aim of rethinking the country’s economic development model so that the economic growth results in higher living standards. “In Moldova, the improvement of economic indicators is not always accompanied by a general perception of better living conditions and public services of a higher quality,” stated Ana Mihailov. The event is expected to involve about 100 participants, such as political decision makers and leaders, representatives of local public administration, private sector, NGOs and of the academic community, and local and foreign experts.
