A new World Bank Group report finds that in the past year Moldova made it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business by implementing regulatory reforms in the areas of starting a business and paying taxes. This year’s report ranks Moldova 63 out of 189 economies, a significant improvement of 19 places compared to the previous year. Romania is ranked 48th, while Ukraine – 96th, IPN reports.
According to a press release of the World Bank, Moldova made starting a business easier by abolishing the minimum capital requirement. In addition, it made paying taxes easier for companies by introducing an electronic system for filing and paying social security contributions. On the other hand, it increased the minimum salary used for calculating the environmental tax liability, increased the employers’ health insurance contribution rate and introduced new filing requirements for value added tax. Areas where Moldova’s indicators are less favorable include construction permits, trade across borders and getting electricity.
“We would like to congratulate Moldova: it is easier to do business in Moldova today than it was five years ago due to improvements in starting a business, getting credit and paying taxes, among others,” said Alex Kremer, World Bank Country Manager for Moldova. “However, to fully unlock Moldova’s potential, good regulations need to translate into efficient implementation. The private sector needs to experience predictability, transparency and integrity in its day-to-day dealings with state institutions for Moldova to be competitive and reap the benefits of its economic integration with the EU.”
“More than a year ago, we launched a roadmap where we clearly described the measures that will be taken to improve the business climate and the things that went wrong, either it was about the issuing of construction authorizations or about connection to energy payments. A lot of work is yet to be done. The 63rd place we got is not the limit of our possibilities. We will continue to communicate with the business community and will identify the problems existing in the system and solutions to them,” said Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, being quoted in a communiqué of the Government’s press service.
The annual World Bank Group flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on the distance to frontier scores for 10 topics and cover 189 economies.
