Moldovan products are made at a too great cost for energy resources

The people will buy products made in Moldova only when these are competitive, said Tatiana Lujanschi, president of the NGO Alliance for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Resources, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “Presently, the share of expenses for energy resources in the finished product is very high. Foreign experts say that this share is 10 times higher than in the EU. National experts say that the energy intensity in Moldova is only five times larger than in the EU. Even if we take the average, we see that the production costs in Moldova are much higher than in other states. As a result, the Moldovan products are not competitive on the home and foreign markets, compared with the imported goods,” Lujanschi said. According to her, any program aimed at promoting the national goods, either launched by the state or the producer, will be unsuccessful until the companies implement in parallel programs to reduce production costs, mainly the cost of energy resources, which will continue to grow in price, as the trends on the international markets show. “We consider that the companies must purchase equipment of the class A, which are more efficient and consume less power. They are more expensive, but the investment is recouped in two-three years.” Tatiana Lujanschi said that the Government should play a special role in this and attract foreign lending resources for reequipping the companies, which are cheaper than the ones offered by the national banks. “The National Association of Moldovan Producers (ANPM) proposed creating a fund from the contributions of the economic entities for financing the information-advertising campaign “Buy Products Made in Moldova”. It would be great if this fund could also offer loans for purchasing equipment. Many countries have such funds. The contributions of the economic entities will have to be higher, but these could be recouped. The Government could also participate in creating the given fund. There are different possibilities and ways,” Lujanschi said.