Moldova cannot reduce degree of economic liberalization because it does not have a free economy, independent experts say

Moldova cannot reduce the degree of economic liberalization because during the independence years it has not pursued really liberal policies that would correspond to the economic liberalism promoted in the West, economist Veaceslav Negruta said at the meeting of the Economic Press Club. The meeting centered on the financial crisis, its consequences and the economic development models that the countries of the world will use in the near future: liberal economy or socialist economy based on high protectionism on the part of the state. “The economic liberalism focuses firstly on the individuals, the citizens and their interests and aims to stimulate the initiatives of the individuals and to protect the ownership rights. Secondly, it implies a functional economy based on market principles. Not many liberal policies were promoted in Moldova in this respect,” Negruta said. Ruslan Barladeanu, the president of the Board of “Locuinte pentru toti” (“Dwellings for Everyone”) company, considers that the countries of the world would choose an economy in which the state would play a greater role in such strategic areas as the energy industry. “Not through administrative methods, but by identifying investment,” said Barladeanu. “But this role of the state must be strictly regulated because when we hear about the role of the state we remember of the socialist economy of Soviet type in which the private initiative was chained,” he said. According to the former Minister of Economy and Trade and director of BIS –Capital company, no major changes will take place in the economic policies of the Western countries. “I think that the United States will count further on private property,” he said. He also said that the doctrine of liberalism must not be blamed for what happened in the United Sates. “The economic doctrines have common theories and there is no strict delimitation between them. Therefore, I think that it is not the right moment now to ask where? – to liberalism or socialism?,” Lazar said. As to Moldova’s economy, Lazar said that he agrees with Negruta, stressing that the Moldovan economy is social-democratic and promotes certain liberal policies. “We cannot speak about economic liberalism because we do not have the basic elements of such liberalism: an integrated private sector and democratic institutions designed to balance state involvement in economy – I mean the press, the civil society, etc. The Moldovan businessmen do not yet have qualities that would help them correctly calculate the production costs, the Agency for Protection of Competition has been only recently created and the fiscal administration is not so efficient to prove that these businessmen exaggerate in the race for profit. We have neither economic liberalism nor socialism. We try to find the place of our state and of the national economy and we must center on the creation of institutions without which a market economy cannot exist,” the former economy minister said.