Romanian not Russian investors will be privileged in privatization of Moldovan strategic facilities, Russian paper

It will be the Romanian not Russian investors who will be privileged in the acquisition of the Moldovan strategic facilities that will be privatized, says the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, quoting expert opinions about the Moldovan Government's plans to privatize the airport, electric power networks, gas pipelines and other facilities that could not be sold until now, Info-Prim Neo reports. The paper says that the Moldovan authorities allocate more money for repaying the debts than for the salaries of budget-paid employees. In order to pay the loans, the Government increases the electricity, gas and heat charges. According to the author of the article, Moldova's foreign debt totals US$1.16 billion and the authorities can do nothing but sell what remained. The Romanian investors already expressed an increased interest in the Moldovan facilities. The analysts in Moldova are sure that the Romanian investors will be given priority as the issue was recently discussed in meetings of Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca with his Romanian counterpart Teodor Baconschi and with Romania's President Traian Basescu in Bucharest. The officials agreed to organize a joint forum of the Moldovan and Romanian Governments in the near future. The article contains opinions of the director of the Russian Institute for Globalization Problems Mikhail Delyagin, who is an expert on Moldova. He says that the privatization process launched by the Filat Government is aimed at attracting Romanian and European capital. “The Moldovan companies will be bought, but will then stagnate, as in Eastern Europe, so as not to be in competition with the similar European companies, mainly the Romanian ones,” the Russian expert said, giving as example the Moldovan wine factories. According to him, these companies and the whole Moldovan economy will have a dramatic future. As to the joint intergovernmental meeting initiated by Premier Vlad Filat, Mikhail Delyagin said it will contribute to Moldova's transfer under foreign Romanian command. “This means that the decisions about Moldova will be taken in Bucharest from now on,” he stated.