Though the investments in long-term material assets in the first half of this year came to 5.4 billion lei in current prices, which is a 1.5% rise in comparable prices compared with the corresponding period last year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar considers that this rise is too modest given the national economy’s needs, while the investment process in Moldova is ’anemic’, IPN reports.
“Analyzing the structure of investments, we see that 64.7% of them were made from the own financial resources of the enterprises and private individuals. The figure is by 4.2% lower compared with the corresponding period last year. The enterprises, even those with liquidity, prefer to keep the money in banks, not to invest it in production development. This shows that they are uncertain and recover with difficulty after the crisis,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
“The situation was improved by the public investments that in the period represented 7.7% of the total investments - 1.7 times higher than in the first half of last year. This way the state compensates for the private sector’s lack of investment interest. We must yet do everything to review the investment policy and to motivate the companies to invest money,” said Valeriu Lazar.
He added that the foreign investors also contributed to remedying the situation. The foreign direct investment in the national economy in January - July rose 1.5 times on last year to US$122.9 million, representing 3.5% of the GDP.
The chairman of the National Employers Confederation of Moldova Leonid Cerescu explained that the companies lack investment interest because the pressure exerted on them is greater. “Though they say that the efforts of the state institutions are aimed at improving the business and investment climate and the Government worked out a relevant roadmap, the real situation didn’t change much. When we need a document for doing business, we meet with the same bureaucratic barriers, while the pressure on the economic entities does not diminish, but increases,” he stated.
