New Land Code to be presented in two months

In about to months, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry intends to submit for consideration to the Government the updated version of the Land Code, which, according to Minister Valeriu Cosarciuc, will reflect the particularities of our country and at the same time follow land policies used in some European countries, Info-Prim Neo reports. Valeriu Cosarciuc has said the new Code will not ban land sales to non-residents, as some implied. However, the minister considers it necessary to hold public debates on whether it will be right to offer foreign investors the opportunity to buy limited areas. Cosarciuc has added that the government is also interested in finding out the public opinion on whether to limit or not the area of land that one person may buy, so as to exclude the concentration of large areas into a single pair of hands. Another topic for public discussions could be if the government should sell land to individuals only or include entities as well. In the process of drafting the Land Code, the ministry seeks to devise mechanisms of stimulating farmers to buy land. “One of the solutions for the government could be to pay the interests on the loans taken out by the farmers”, said the minister, adding that in Moldova “land is not just an economic institute, but first of all, a social factor of prime significance”. The total area of farmland in Moldova is 1.7 million hectares, 40,000 hectares of which are government-owned.